No matter what happens throughout Bella Mir's career, her family name prompts mentions of her former UFC champion father. However, after her first attempt to enter the UFC, the parent who drew attention was her mother.
Mir (4-1) was one half of the featured bout of Dana White's Contender Series 89. The UFC CEO Dana White admitted he was extremely biased about the matchup, which meant a win in any fashion would most likely have guaranteed her entry into the UFC. However, Alex Apodaca pulled off a historic upset and earned a UFC contract instead.
After the fight, Mir's mother, Jennifer, left a few unsavory comments on social media, which diminished Apodaca's moment, for which she later apologized. As if navigating the heartbreaking loss wasn't hard
enough, Bella had to deal with her mother causing a stir, which she knew was wrong but also, in a way, protective.
"After the fight, a lot of fighters were texting me and trying to, I guess, keep my hopes up or just tell me that everything's going to be OK," Bella said on "The Ariel Helwani Show." "I was kind confused, because I feel like this is pretty known that I'm not really liked. Every sport I compete in, you heard during the NCAA finals there were more boos than there was cheering. I feel like that's just what it's been like my whole life. I feel like I've never been the one that's being cheered for. So honestly the hate after the fight, it didn't surprise me at all.
"And then my mom commenting about stuff, that didn't really help the situation. But she honestly kind of took the fire off of me. Everyone started hating on her more than they were hating on me. It's crazy. It's like, 'Mom, you literally protect me in every situation I've ever lived in, and literally you protected me more in this one.' I don't know how she could've done that, but she did."
Bella said she reached out to her mother the day after the fight to tell her to delete her social media comments and apologize to Apodaca (4-1). Jennifer did as her daughter wished and vowed to stay off social media moving forward.
"I think just heat of the moment my mom is very emotional," Bella said. "Obviously she's seen hate in my comments before, but to a level like that, she's never seen. So I think it just took the best of her. And then obviously drinking that night, that didn't really help. I don't think she had any real type of mission. I think she was just raging out. She obviously apologized to everyone. She admitted that she made a mistake, and that's the best that anyone could honestly after making a mistake, is owning up to it. That was just a crazy situation."
As for her fighting career, Bella is unsure what comes next after losing at DWCS. However, she says that the loss is already out of her mind, and she's focused on her next opportunity to get back on track following the first loss of her professional MMA career.
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Bella Mir: Mother 'raging out' after DWCS loss 'protected me'
