“It is an entertainment sport, you have got to entertain. If the crowd aren’t liking it, you gotta pull something out of the bag and I seem to be able to do that.”
Dakota Ditcheva is on her way to superstardom in Professional Fighters League (PFL).
Manchester, England’s Ditcheva has wasted no time becoming one of the best prospects in mixed martial arts (MMA) at 24 years old. The PFL Flyweight has amassed an impressive undefeated 9-0 record since debuting in April 2021 and now finds herself on the cusp of winning a PFL Europe title.
Ditcheva made her presence felt in the promotion last year, scoring two vicious first round knockouts over Hassna Gaber and Katherine Corogenes. The performances ultimately led Ditcheva and PFL to entrust her in the 125-pound weight classes as a member of the European series, which she also shined in with two more finishes. A nasty body shot knockout of Cornelia Holm in Paris, France last month (Sept. 30, 2023) now has “Dangerous” staring at a PFL title against Valentina Scatizzi. The pair will collide in Dublin, Ireland at PFL Europe 4 on Dec. 8, 2023.
“She’s gotta be prepared, right?” Ditcheva told MMA Mania. “She’s seen me fight twice now in the tournament. Two stoppages, so she’s gotta be prepared. She obviously had a lot to say, considering she got a bye. She didn’t even fight in Paris, so like she’s not even fought properly yet but I’m expecting her to bring a good fight.
“She looks confident,” she continued. “I’ve not really watched her too much yet, to be honest, but she’s a lot shorter as well. Sometimes I feel like the shorter ones can be the more dangerous ones. They can come out of anywhere, but as I always say, I’ll be expecting a tough fight. I’ll always go in there underestimating no one. I don’t think she’s on my level. I honestly don’t think anybody can compete with me these days that PFL can pull in. I’m confident.”
Unfortunately for Scatizzi, the Italian missed out on her opportunity to impress in the semifinals as she had two opponents fall out, leading her to the finals against Ditcheva after a lone split decision win over Lizzy Gevers in the opening round.
Ditcheva has more finishes in PFL than Scatizzi (2-1) has fights overall as a professional. In her burgeoning nine-fight career, Ditcheva has proven a consummate finisher with just one of her fights requiring the judges’ scorecards. At Flyweight, especially in PFL, Ditcheva believes this makes her a valuable asset that will keep fans coming back every time they see her name on the fight line up.
“At my weight, 125, you don’t see a lot of stoppages like the way I’ve knocked a few people out or stopped with body shots,” Ditcheva said. “It’s quite exciting the way I fight, which is not something you see all the time. So, it is important for me to keep that up and I think that’s just coming from a striking background, that’s why I’m doing that so much.
“People have said to me a few times after the shows, ‘Oh, we needed that fight so much on the card. It kind of livened everyone up a bit,’” she continued. “So, I think my style of fighting is just quite exciting. It’s definitely what we need, for sure. Even like part of the first round [in my last fight], the crowd started booing when she was holding me on the cage then the ref kind of started to break it a little bit when it was getting boring. It is an entertainment sport, you have got to entertain. If the crowd aren’t liking it, you gotta pull something out of the bag and I seem to be able to do that.”
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