{"id":40241,"date":"2026-09-02T05:25:49","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T05:25:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/news\/news\/Alex-Apodaca-defends-Bella-Mir-on-heels-of-historic-DWCS-upset-backlash-202629"},"modified":"2026-09-02T05:25:49","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T05:25:49","slug":"alex-apodaca-defends-bella-mir-on-heels-of-historic-dwcs-upset-backlash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/alex-apodaca-defends-bella-mir-on-heels-of-historic-dwcs-upset-backlash\/","title":{"rendered":"Alex Apodaca defends Bella Mir on heels of historic DWCS upset backlash"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/alex-apodaca-defends-bella-mir-on-heels-of-historic-dwcs-upset-backlash.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"\/><\/div>\n<p><a rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/fighter\/Alex-Apodaca-380894\">Alex<br \/>\nApodaca<\/a> pulled off the biggest upset in <a rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/organizations\/Dana-Whites-Contender-Series-12411\"><br \/>\nDana White\u2019s Contender Series<\/a> history, but refuses to put down<br \/>\nher opponent.<\/p>\n<p>Apodaca entered the matchup as a massive underdog against the<br \/>\nhighly touted <a rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/fighter\/Bella-Mir-376715\">Bella Mir<\/a>.<br \/>\nShe emerged victorious via decision to earn an <a rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/organizations\/Ultimate-Fighting-Championship-2\"><br \/>\nUltimate Fighting Championship<\/a> contract. Mir has since drawn<br \/>\ncriticism for her performance, but Apodaca believes the backlash<br \/>\nisn\u2019t warranted.<\/p>\n<div id=\"adViAi\">\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Alex Apodaca says Bella Mir is still a \u2018good fighter\u2019 after<br \/>\nhistoric DWCS upset<\/h2>\n<p>While Apodaca laughed off the fact that some viewed her as a<br \/>\n\u201csacrificial lamb\u201d going into the bout, she admits she occasionally<br \/>\ndoubted herself given the pre-fight betting odds.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI didn\u2019t find the actual [odds] out before the fight, but I knew<br \/>\nwhat was happening,\u201d Apodaca told <a rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tmz.com\/2026\/09\/01\/alex-apodaca-beats-bella-mir-ufc-contender-series\/#continued\">TMZ<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019m just like the sacrificial lamb being<br \/>\nthrown in is kind of the thought that people are thinking, which I<br \/>\nwas like, that\u2019s insane. Nothing points to the fact that I\u2019m just<br \/>\ngoing to go out there and just like get smashed. Every once in a<br \/>\nwhile I\u2019d be like, \u2018I\u2019m going to win. I\u2019m going to win.\u2019 But then<br \/>\nI\u2019d look at my coach and be like, \u2018You think she\u2019s really that<br \/>\ngood?\u2019 Like, dude, what is happening?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Despite beating Mir, Apodaca claims that her former foe is still a<br \/>\ngood fighter and refuses to discredit her.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI will say she\u2019s good. I don\u2019t want to discredit her or me by<br \/>\nsaying she\u2019s not,\u201d Apodaca added. \u201cI definitely thought this would<br \/>\nbe so insane if I pulled this off. But I did want to do it. I did<br \/>\nwant to pull it off.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Alex Apodaca pulled off the biggest upset in Dana White\u2019s Contender Series history, but refuses to put down her opponent. Apodaca entered the matchup as a massive underdog against the highly touted Bella Mir. She emerged victorious via decision to earn an Ultimate Fighting Championship contract. Mir has since drawn criticism for her performance, but [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40242,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40241","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\/40241","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=40241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}