Overview
- Alex Apodaca defeated Bella Mir by unanimous decision on Tuesday, with all three judges scoring the bout 29-28, and was awarded a UFC contract after the main event at the Meta APEX.
- The result handed Mir the first professional loss of her career and denied her the Contender Series contract she had been widely expected to receive.
- Pre-fight betting had heavily favored Mir, with widely reported odds as extreme as -6000 or 60-1, making Apodaca’s victory one of the largest upsets in Contender Series coverage.
- UFC president Dana White said he had been ‘extremely biased’ toward Mir and cited her lack of ‘deep water’ experience compared with Apodaca as a key factor in the outcome.
- Apodaca said she works full time at an accounting firm and plans to keep that job despite the UFC deal, and White confirmed several other fighters on the same card also received contracts, underscoring DWCS’s role as an unpredictable talent pipeline.