Women’s MMA prospect Bella Mir says that she is concerned for her father, UFC legend Frank Mir, as “his brain is not good.”
Bella Mir is in the news because she fought on Week 3 of Dana White’s Contender Series, losing to Alex Apodaca in one of the biggest upsets in combat sports history, based on the betting odds, as Mir was a -6000 favorite to win, yet lost the fight when Apodaca upset her.
In her corner was her father, Frank Mir, the former UFC heavyweight champion who is one of the greatest heavyweight MMA fighters of all time.
But having a career like the one Frank Mir did took a toll on his head and body, and his daughter is now speaking about her father, saying he is suffering from brain damage.
Bella Mir Worried About Father Frank Mir
Speaking on “The Ariel Helwani Show,” Bella Mir explained why she is worried about her father’s health, and it’s one of the reasons why she is hoping to not have any drag ’em out wars in her own fighting career, but rather hopes for quick finishes.
“He’s been in so many wars before, his brain is not good today. I feel like it’s really been catching up to him and I’d like to try to get fast finishes and not have wars like that, like I just did in that last fight. Obviously, if I have to I will. … I don’t know if I want to have 32 fights,” Bella Mir said (via MMAFighting.com).
“He’s doing good, but he’s had so many surgeries. His body is so beat up. He’s had his neck fused, he’s had his lower back fused, he’s had his hip replacement, his knee replacement. Both his labrums in his shoulders are completely gone, that’s why I said I did not want to have his career. I want to be able to not have that many surgeries and function afterwards completely normal. There’s times where he’s, like, needing a cane because he can’t walk that much, so it’s just his body’s beat up.”
Bella Mir Wants to Carve Out Her Own MMA Career
One of the interesting things about Bella and Frank Mir is that they both won their first four MMA fights before they each suffered their first career defeat in their fifth bout.
Bella Mir says she did not know about that statistic until she saw someone post it on social media, but even then, she is hoping that she can carve out her own MMA career and not exactly follow in her famous father’s footsteps, despite how much success he had in his fighting career.
“I didn’t know that until I watched someone on a video post on Instagram and they were talking about (our similarities) and I was like, that is so weird. I hope that we don’t have the exact career all the way through because I want to fight for a long time and not have so much brain damage,” Bella Mir said.
Bella Mir Concerned for Father Frank Mir: ‘His Brain Is Not Good’