The biggest favorite in DWCS history, Bella Mir, got absolutely blindsided by the heavy underdog Alex Apodaca, but somehow, her mom ended up taking some of the heat for her.

After the daughter of UFC legend Frank Mir suffered one of the biggest upsets in Dana White’s Contender Series history last week, her mother, Jennifer Mir, went on the offensive online, taking straight aim at Apodaca. And as expected, the fan backlash was quick and fierce. But if you ask Bella Mir, she thinks there was a strange silver lining to it. As everyone piled on her mother, some of the spotlight and pressure unexpectedly shifted away from her loss.

“Honestly, the hate after the fight, it didn’t surprise me at all,” Mir told Ariel Helwani. “And then my mom commenting, you know, that stuff, that didn’t really help the situation. But she honestly kind of took the fire off of me.

“Everyone started hating on her before they were hating on me, so I thought that was— 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 you could have done that, but she did.”

The reaction from Jennifer quickly became one of the biggest talking points surrounding the fight. Instead of focusing primarily on Bella Mir’s defeat, the MMA community turned its attention to her mother, who had blasted Apodaca’s victory and taken multiple digs at the fighter online.

She criticized Alex Apodaca for supposedly “lucking out,” questioned the judges’ scoring, and even commented on the black eye Apodaca suffered during the fight, writing that it was “from my daughter f—- you up.”

The comments drew some serious backlash online, including criticism from UFC middleweight champion Sean Strickland, and soon Jennifer herself became the center of the controversy.

‘Lady,’ however, believes her mother’s emotional reaction ended up protecting her in an unexpected way. After all, there was no denying the magnitude of what had happened inside the cage. The NCAA wrestling prospect entered DWCS Week 3 on the back of a 4-0 record and as a clear fan favorite, with some sportsbooks placing her at -6000. However, on fight night, her 32-year-old opponent pulled off a historic upset and earned a UFC contract instead.

When Ariel Helwani asked Bella Mir if her mother had intentionally created the distraction to divert attention away from her, the young fighter didn’t believe there was any strategy behind what she did.

“Uh, I don’t know,” Bella Mir replied. “I think just heat of the moment. My mom’s very emotional.”

Jennifer Mir later admitted that emotion played a major part in her behavior. In an apology posted on social media, she claimed that she had seen some fans telling Bella to die and kill herself following the loss, and she simply reacted as a protective mother.

“I want to address the comments I made after the fight,” she stated. “But first I want to give you all a very deserved explanation. After the fight I went onto Bella’s comments and saw comments telling my daughter to die and kill herself.

“I reacted purely as an emotional and protective mother after seeing my daughter go through a hard loss, and I let alcoh-l and adrenaline get the better of me. However, that is ZERO excuse. I want to sincerely apologize to Alex Apodaca, her team, the judges, and the fans. Alex fought a brilliant fight and earned that win fair and square and deserves nothing but respect.”

She also emphasized that her comments were her own and did not reflect Bella, her team, or the values she trains by.

“My out-of-line comments were entirely my own and do not reflect Bella, her team, or the values she trains by,” she added. “I’m stepping back from social media to let Bella focus on her recovery, and I ask everyone to direct any frustration toward me and not my daughter.”

Now, however, it appears the controversy has not created any lasting animosity between Alex Apodaca and the Mir family.

Alex Apodaca says she wasn’t aware of Bella Mir’s mum’s comments

Alex Apodaca has revealed that she was largely unaware of the controversy while it was unfolding, meaning Jennifer Mir’s comments never had the opportunity to affect her immediately after the biggest victory of her career.

“I didn’t really see those things in real time,” the 4-1 fighter told Helwani. “I think I was hanging out with my dad and his friends, some teammates in Vegas, the night of the fight, which I’m pretty sure is when she was commenting all that stuff.

“And then the next day I flew back to Denver, packed my stuff, flew to Texas, and on the flight home from Texas, so, Wednesday night, I finally opened up Instagram and started looking through all this stuff, and I was like, ‘Oh s—. This was kind of a big deal, kind of blew up.'”

Because the 32-year-old didn’t see the comments in real time, Apodaca claimed they had no emotional impact or hindered her from celebrating the win. And by the time she learned about the situation, Jennifer had already apologized and explained what had led to the outburst.

Alex Apodaca was thus able to look at the incident from a distance rather than reacting in the immediate aftermath of the fight.

When pressed by Ariel Helwani if she was comfortable with everything, Apodaca made it clear that she had no desire to hold anything against Jennifer or Bella Mir.

“I feel like Mrs. Mir is not Bella,” she replied. “And so I just kind of held on to that. Like, it’s not a big deal.

“I mean, when your kid is fighting, I know that’s, like, a heightened emotional state, so it is what it is. We’re all human.”

That response effectively puts the controversy into perspective for Alex Apodaca, who can now focus on her life after the massive win at DWCS. After all, the underdog didn’t just defeat an MMA legend’s daughter but also earned herself a UFC contract in one of the most stunning Contender Series upsets in history.