Dakota Ditcheva took a huge step forward in her career when she captured her first PFL championship and became the first fighter to finish Taila Santos.
It was the perfect performance to measure how Ditcheva stacked up compared to other elite flyweights, considering Santos was a title challenger in the UFC, who took perennial champions and contenders like Valentina Shevchenko, Liz Carmouche, and Erin Blanchfield to decisions. The 26-year-old Brit dominated Santos from start to finish until she uncorked a vicious body punch that ended the fight in the second round.
“I think honestly she probably underestimated me a little bit,” Ditcheva told MMA Fighting about the win. “Like she has been saying through the whole tournament, not just this fight, from the very beginning that I’m just a Barbie, she’s a different level. I genuinely don’t think she respected me at all and where me, I respected every girl in this tournament, whether they’ve been in the UFC or not.
“I think genuinely she got shocked when I hit her and as soon as I hit with the first inside leg kick, I saw her face change, and then every shot I hit her with, she was just like making noises like it was hurting. I think she probably underestimated me, which is a silly move to do and something I’m surprised she did at her level.”
With a perfect 14-0 record, and only one fight going to a decision her entire career, Ditcheva seems like she’s well on her way to becoming the face of the PFL and one of the top flyweights in the sport.
Capping off her year with the knockout over Santos definitely earned Ditcheva a higher spot in the overall rankings at 125 pounds but just how high should she climb? While she definitely argues for a spot near the top, even Ditcheva still has another name in mind when it comes to the best flyweight in all of MMA right now.
“Valentina Shevchenko. 100 percent [she’s No. 1],” Ditcheva said about the reigning UFC flyweight champion. “Listen, she’s the first person to finish the rubies on a belt. She’s been around so, so long and she’s stayed at the top of that level. I know people are saying now she’s on a little bit of a down [turn] but she’s a lot older now. She’s been around for years at the top of the level and no one’s been able to wipe her out.
“[Alexa] Grasso got that one fight on her, which was fair enough, beat her fair and square, but honestly, she can do everything as well. She’s a full MMA fighter. She’s not just a striker, not just a grappler, not just a wrestler. She’s everything. She can switch it all up. I genuinely feel at flyweight she is 100 percent up there.”
Now just because she puts Shevchenko No. 1 doesn’t mean Ditcheva wouldn’t favor herself to win that fight or any others in the division.
Ditcheva has full confidence in how she stacks up against anybody in the world at 125 pounds, and she absolutely welcomes each and every one of those challenges.
“Yeah because I know the work I put in,” Ditcheva said about beating the best flyweights in the sport. “I do not miss a session in training. I am there everyday, twice a day, three times a day if I’ve got an extra session. I am constantly on that mat working and living this life. I go back and forth to the gym every single day, hardly do anything else so I know that it doesn’t matter who you put in front of me, I’m going to do the exact same thing every time.”
Thanks to her dominance and utter destruction over the field during the 2024 PFL season, Ditcheva now looks towards the future with hopes that she’ll face even stiffer competition next year.
That means PFL needs to seek out opposition to challenge Ditcheva, which immediately led to questions about her potentially seeking out those fights in a promotion like the UFC.
Because the UFC is the biggest organization across all MMA, it’s impossible for Ditcheva to avoid that conversation. That said, Ditcheva likes to point out that she was just a 5-0 prospect when PFL discovered her and that led to the platform where she eventually earned a million dollar payday along with a championship in her 14th professional fight.
In other words, Ditcheva won’t shut down fighting in the UFC one day in the future, but she also acknowledges that PFL has earned her loyalty.
“I don’t hate [questions about the UFC] but I just feel like PFL deserve their respect,” Ditcheva said. “Like I said, they picked me up in Europe. I was known, but I wasn’t massive. I’m not saying I’m massive now, but I’ve gotten a lot of attention recently. They’ve helped me build that. They helped me build my followers, my fans. They’ve given me opportunities like fighting in that Europe tournament. They didn’t even have a flyweight division until I signed.
“So the opportunities that they’ve given me, I can’t forget that. They might not be the UFC, but they’re still an amazing promotion that has done a lot for me. I definitely don’t hate the UFC questions. I understand it, people are interested in that and there’s a whole other flyweight division there that people are excited to see me in. But there’s still so much to get from PFL, and I’ve got to be grateful for the position that I’m in.”
