Expectations can be a double-edged sword. Bella Mir is now facing the dark side of her prodigious hype, with numerous MMA stars reacting to her loss to Alex Apodaca at Dana White’s Contender Series.
Bella, the daughter of former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir, had already made waves in the wrestling and submission grappling scenes ahead of her DWCS appearance. Furthermore, Mir entered the bout as a massive betting favorite at several sportsbooks.
In the fight, however, Apodaca showcased excellent defensive grappling, stuffing Mir’s repeated takedown attempts before controlling the bout with precise striking to earn a unanimous decision victory.
During the week three DWCS post-fight press conference, UFC CEO Dana White expressed his disappointment over Mir’s loss while also sharing a reassuring message about the 23-year-old’s future.
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Nevertheless, not everyone in the MMA community has been as kind to Mir, with many mixed martial artists sharing their unfiltered and at times harsh thoughts about the youngster’s performance.
Former UFC fighter Jeff Molina wrote:
“Holy fraud check. Let’s see those Apodaca tickets.”
UFC women’s bantamweight Yana Santos chimed in:
“Omg. For the last few days, my entire timeline has been filled with people saying Bella Mir was going to dominate our bantamweight division.”
Zac Pauga wrote:
“I’m not hating on Bella; being delusional is necessary for doing anything great in life, but maybe Frank can tell her to chill on talking about winning an Olympic gold medal and UFC title before she takes some real fights.”
Check out a few more reactions below:
Alex Apodaca talks turning point in her fight with Bella Mir
It appears there was a specific moment in her Dana White’s Contender Series bout against Bella Mir when Alex Apodaca realized that she had the fight in the bag.
Speaking to the media during the event’s post-fight press conference, Apodaca revealed that ending the first round on top made her realize she had the upper hand:
“Yeah, the end of the first round when I ended up on top, [I knew I was gonna win]. I knew it then. I could feel that [she was defeated after that]. I could also tell, like, she hadn’t been in the second round and third round much. And that’s where I live, so I was fine with it.” [2:26 mark of the interview]
Edited by Ujwal Jain