{"id":40116,"date":"2026-08-26T07:51:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T07:51:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/news\/news\/Bella-Mir-stunned-in-historic-DWCS-upset-as-Dana-White-awards-five-contracts-202529"},"modified":"2026-08-26T07:51:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T07:51:12","slug":"bella-mir-stunned-in-historic-dwcs-upset-as-dana-white-awards-five-contracts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/bella-mir-stunned-in-historic-dwcs-upset-as-dana-white-awards-five-contracts\/","title":{"rendered":"Bella Mir stunned in historic DWCS upset as Dana White awards five contracts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/div>\n


\nWeek 3<\/a> of
\nDana White\u2019s Contender Series<\/a> saw the biggest upset in the
\nhistory of the show.<\/p>\n

Week 3 of the 10th season of DWCS went down at Meta Apex in Las
\nVegas on Aug. 25. All five winners on the card walked away with
\n
\nUltimate Fighting Championship<\/a> contracts.<\/p>\n

\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Alex Apodaca defeats the -6000 favorite to cap DWCS 2026 Week
\n3<\/h2>\n

The main event of the card saw the biggest upset in the history of
\nDWCS. Former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir<\/a>\u2019s
\ndaughter Bella Mir<\/a>
\n(4-1) was a -6000 favorite going into her bantamweight clash
\nagainst Alex
\nApodaca<\/a> (5-1). Apodaca outclassed Mir on the feet while holding
\nher own in wrestling exchanges to earn a unanimous decision
\nwin.<\/p>\n

White admits that while he is mostly unbiased in fights, he was
\nheavily biased towards Mir, having been a mentor to her. White
\nnotes that Michael
\nBisping<\/a> had correctly expected Apodaca\u2019s experience to play a
\nfactor in the fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlex, what you had to face tonight\u2026 Now I\u2019m very proud of myself
\nthat in 10 years of doing this, I\u2019ve never had any bias,\u201d White
\nsaid while granting Apodaca a UFC contract. \u201cI don\u2019t know anything
\nabout anybody coming in. I was overly biased in this fight. I\u2019ve
\nknown Bella for a long time. Four years ago we started mapping out
\nher plan and who she was gonna be\u2026 Michael Bisping said, \u2018She might
\nbe the biggest underdog in Contender Series history, but she has
\nthe experience that Bella doesn\u2019t: Deep waters.\u2019 Bisping nailed it
\non the head. Unbelievable upset. Congratulations, you\u2019re in the
\nUFC.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nick
\nGalanti<\/a> (8-1) opened the card in a middleweight clash against
\nCarlos
\nPetruzzella<\/a> (15-2). Galanti made quick work of the Argentinian,
\ndropping him with a right hook and finishing him with
\nground-and-pound in just 35 seconds. UFC CEO Dana
\nWhite<\/a> commended Galanti\u2019s flawless performance while awarding
\nhim a contract.<\/p>\n

\u201cNick, you couldn\u2019t possibly open a show better than you did,\u201d
\nWhite said. \u201cAnd you couldn\u2019t perform any better on this show than
\nyou did. Congratulations, you\u2019re in the UFC.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ronald
\nHumphrey<\/a> (5-0) earned the second contract in Week 3 of DWCS
\n2026. Humphrey put on a dominant display of wrestling and striking
\nbefore making Alexis
\nMiranda<\/a> (9-3) tap to a rear-naked choke in the first round.<\/p>\n

White revealed that matchmaker Sean Shelby told him that it was
\ndifficult to find an opponent for the undefeated welterweight on
\nDWCS. White told Shelby that it won\u2019t be easy for him to find
\nHumphrey an opponent in the UFC as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cRonald, you\u2019re an animal,\u201d White said. \u201cI said to Sean, \u2018This guy
\nis so well-rounded for having only four fights.\u2019 And Sean said,
\n\u2018They couldn\u2019t get anyone to fight him.\u2019 I said, \u2018You\u2019re not gonna
\nbe able to get anyone to fight him either.\u2019 Congratulations,
\nwelcome to the UFC.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nCage Warriors<\/a> interim welterweight champion Sean Clancy
\nJr.<\/a> (9-0) earned a UFC contract for his win over Gary
\nBalletto Jr.<\/a> (11-4). White was impressed with the composure of
\nthe 23-year-old Clancy Jr. as he dragged Balletto Jr. to the mat
\nand unleashed vicious elbows to secure the stoppage in the second
\nround.<\/p>\n

\u201cSean, you\u2019re only 23 years old, and you\u2019re 9-0; it\u2019s incredible,\u201d
\nWhite said. \u201cI love how technical and composed you are for such a
\nyoung guy. Saw a lot of great things from you in less than two
\nrounds. I\u2019m really excited about your future in the UFC.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guilherme
\nUriel<\/a> (8-2) earned a UFC contract for his win over Mario
\nPiazzon<\/a> (12-2). White admits that he was surprised by Uriel’s
\nguillotine attempt, which initially didn\u2019t look threatening.
\nHowever, Uriel proved White wrong by forcing Piazzon to tap to a
\nguillotine in just 50 seconds.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a weird fight,\u201d White said. \u201cI was surprised; I literally
\nsaid, \u2018Why does he keep going for the choke? He\u2019s not getting the
\nchoke. What\u2019s he doing?\u2019 I was wrong. You got the choke, finished
\nit quickly\u2026 Welcome to the UFC.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

All 5 winners get a contract tonight! \u270d\ufe0f<\/p>\n[ #DWCS<\/a>
\n| LIVE on @ParamountPlus<\/a>
\n] pic.twitter.com\/VPhYzhZQVc<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 UFC on Paramount+ (@UFConParamount)
\nAugust 26, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/center> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Week 3 of Dana White\u2019s Contender Series saw the biggest upset in the history of the show. Week 3 of the 10th season of DWCS went down at Meta Apex in Las Vegas on Aug. 25. All five winners on the card walked away with Ultimate Fighting Championship contracts. Advertisement Alex Apodaca defeats the -6000 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40117,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-martial-arts-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}