Bella Mir, the daughter of former UFC heavyweight Frank Mir, will make her Dana White’s Contender Series debut on Tuesday against Alex Apodaca. The women’s bantamweight bout headlines the five-bout fight card at the Meta Apex in Las Vegas.
The grappling standout won the NCAA wrestling 145-pound title earlier this year. Next month she’ll attempt to defeat 2024 Olympic silver medalist Kennedy Blades and secure a chance to compete for the United States at the World Wrestling Championships in Kazakhstan later this year.
The 23-year-old is undefeated in mixed marital arts (4-0) and plans to eventually be a UFC champion. That journey begins against Apodaca .
“The goal was to always transition eventually to the UFC,” Mir told MMAFighting. “I just got back from college and had my meeting with Dana [White] and I was just like telling him that it’s really hard to get me fights under like UFC Fight Pass and like these smaller shows. There was a year where I couldn’t even fight anyone because everyone said no. I went though like 20 people.”
“He was like, ‘yeah, so do you want to do The Contenders?’ I was like, “Yeah, I mean, it’s probably the right move. So, we just got right to it.”
Mir doesn’t just want to become a UFC champion. She wants to earn titles in UFC BJJ, Zuffa Boxing, and become an Olympic gold medalist as well.
“I don’t want to go for just world titles. I want to go for a legacy. I want to be legendary. I just want to shoot for the highest I could get. I just want to be in that talks of, you know, the best athletes of all time,” she said. “I don’t even want to be the best MMA fighter, or the best combat athlete. I want to be the best athlete of all-time. I just want to hit the highest of goals that you can hit and I just stay focused and I just always reminding myself of those dreams of mine.”
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