"Into this swelter, Bella Mir begins to jog. She's decked out in a full sweatsuit, perhaps the better to sweat out the 1.5 pounds she must shed to make weight for North Central's dual in a few hours. Mir is one of the best wrestlers in the women's college game right now, but even that lofty distinction seems too small, too finite, to capture what she is and what she intends to be."
"Frank Mir won the heavyweight title twice in the 16 years he fought in the UFC. He helped recast the UFC from fringe spectacle to professional juggernaut in the public imagination. He passed down his devotion to martial arts to his two sons, Kage and Ronin, and daughter, Bella, as though headlocks and armbars were just your classic genetic traits."
"Go out there and be a samurai, he whispers into her ear. Be sharp. Be smart. You know what I mean? I love you. Frank's calculus boils down to this: His daughter is in the same weight class as her opponent, but not the same class class. He knows the only way for Mir to lose is if Mir beats herself."
Bella Mir prepares for a college wrestling match at North Central College, shedding weight in the humid, aging Merner Field House. She comes from a family deeply embedded in martial arts—her father Frank Mir was a two-time UFC heavyweight champion who helped elevate the UFC to mainstream prominence. Frank passed his martial arts devotion to all three of his children: sons Kage and Ronin, and daughter Bella. Before her match, Frank offers his daughter guidance, encouraging her to compete with focus and intelligence. He believes Bella possesses superior skill compared to her opponent and that her only real competition is herself.
Read at ESPN.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]