Star prospect Bella Mir’s mixed martial arts career has been on the fast track ever since she won four state wrestling titles at Centennial High School and went to college with the first NIL deal from the UFC.
It took a significant detour on Tuesday night at Meta Apex.
Mir suffered a unanimous-decision defeat to Alex Apodaca in the bantamweight main event of Dana White’s Contender Series in what by most accounts was the biggest betting upset in the sport’s history.
“It’s sick,” said Apodaca, who thought Mir appeared overconfident on her walk to the cage. “I think it’s so cool that I pulled it off. The actual reality hasn’t hit yet. It kind of feels like a fever dream.
“I think everyone assumed she would just be able to wrestle me and get me to the ground and submit me. But once I actually felt her, I was like, ‘I got this.’”
After a strong first round, Mir struggled to find a rhythm and couldn’t take Apodaca down despite her impressive wrestling credentials. Apodaca bloodied Mir with some shots and did enough damage to win the final two rounds and earn a 29-28 verdict on all three scorecards.
It was a stunning result for Mir and a very partisan crowd of about 1,100.
The Las Vegas native entered the cage as a minus-6000 favorite. White referred to Apodaca as not the biggest underdog to win but as the biggest underdog of any kind in UFC history, though Contender Series fights are not official UFC bouts.
According to Tapology, the biggest previous UFC betting upset occurred when Myktybek Orolbai was a minus-1600 favorite when he lost to Jeremiah Wells on the UFC 330 undercard.
“The sport is too crazy to be that big of an underdog,” said White, the UFC’s CEO, of the odds on Mir’s fight. “I always say if you’re a degenerate, you should bet every underdog on these cards. Alex would have paid for your whole year.
“Everybody’s going to be talking about Alex for a long time.”
The hype around Mir, who was unavailable for comment, has also been building for an extended period.
Mir, 23, was an elite high school wrestler who was also winning national titles in jiu-jitsu with an eye on following in the footsteps of her father, former two-time UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir.
She met with White before deciding to attend college instead of immediately pursuing a pro career in mixed martial arts out of high school. He told her she should wrestle collegiately to gain experience and provided her with the first NIL deal in UFC history to help her pursuits.
Mir, who had traveled to Mexico to make her pro MMA debut at 17, excelled at Iowa and then transferred to North Central College and finishing her career with a national championship in March before winning the U.S. Open in April.
But after starting her career 4-0 with three first-round knockouts, Mir’s career hit its first speed bump on Tuesday.
It was a tough loss personally for White, who tries to know as little about the Contender Series fighters as possible before they step in the cage.
“I was extremely biased,” White admitted. “I’ve been close to (Mir) for over four years when she came to me and we mapped out her future. I’m the one who talked her into going to college to get a wrestling background.
“But the difference in the fight was deep water. Bella had never been there. Alex had.”
Apodcaca, 32, agreed with that assessment.
“When I ended the first round and was able to end up on top, I knew she was done,” Apodaca said. “I knew she hadn’t been to the second and third rounds before and that’s where I live.”
White still believes in Mir’s future, however.
“She didn’t fold,” he said. “She didn’t stop. She didn’t quit. It’s all part of the game.
“To come in and just go undefeated forever is very hard in this sport.”
Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on X.
