The common denominator is Lance Gibson Sr., a former SuperBrawl, Shooto and UFC fighter who now serves as their trainer and tactician.
Then a Muay Thai fighter, Budd started training at Lance Sr.'s gym in Port Moody, B.C., in the early 2000s and the two later connected. A couple since 2009, they got married in 2013.
Lance Jr., now 26, was about nine when he first met Budd.
"I was upstairs at our gym … I think I was playing video games on the computer or something like that and I could hear her kicks, the crashing of the pads," he recalled. "Me and my cousin sit up and we're like 'Who the heck is that?' And it was Julia. She was just ripping the Thai pads open."