Dana White admits bias after Bella Mir’s Contender Series defeat

Bella Mir lost a decision to Alex Apodaca on Dana White’s Contender Series, ending her bid for an opportunity after a fast start. The result was described as the biggest underdog victory in the show’s nine-year history.

White admitted that he was not neutral before the fight. He has known Mir and her family for more than four years, and his relationship with her began well before her appearance on the programme.

The UFC president said Mir had previously approached him to discuss her future in fighting. White encouraged her to attend university first, develop her wrestling at college and delay a full move into cage competition.

That history left White openly favouring Mir before she faced Apodaca. His usual Contender Series approach is to watch fighters with little prior knowledge of them, but Mir’s family connection and his involvement in her development made this contest different.

Mir started quickly, but Apodaca was able to take the fight to a decision. White pointed to Michael Bisping’s pre-fight assessment that endurance over the later stages would be decisive, with Apodaca having experience in that kind of demanding contest while Mir had not reached that point before.

The defeat denied Mir the opportunity she was seeking on the show and gave Apodaca the most significant underdog win in the programme’s nine-year run. For White, the result also exposed how strongly his long-standing connection to Mir had shaped his expectations before the bout.