Since its inception six years ago, the
Professional Fighters League has set out to discover and
develop homegrown stars that could rival the popularity of the
Ultimate Fighting Championship’s top talent. Now, there is a
PFL project that’s on the brink of breaking through to the next
level of stardom: Meet “Dangerous” Dakota
Ditcheva.
The undefeated English flyweight has taken the women’s mixed
martial arts scene by storm in three short years as a pro. Few
active female fighters outside Valentina
Shevchenko, Cris
Cyborg and Weili Zhang
are truly terrifying on their feet, but the 26-year-old is a rare
exception. Ditcheva’s muay thai is as beautiful as it is brutal.
She has the rare combination of power and personality to become a
box office giant. But one thing is standing in her way.
Former UFC title challenger Taila
Santos is one of the best flyweights in the world and the
No. 9 ranked pound-for-pound female fighter according to Sherdog’s
rankings. Santos was on the cusp of gold before dropping a
disputed split decision to Shevchenko two years ago. Despite her
success in the Octagon, Santos believed her services could be
better utilized elsewhere, and she made headlines when she bolted
for the PFL in March.
When Santos first arrived, her participation in the PFL tournament
seemed like a formality. She was instilled as an early favorite to
win the $1 million grand prize. With wins over Ilara
Joanne, Jena Bishop
and Bellator
MMA champion Liz
Carmouche, few are surprised to see Santos in the season
finale, but there’s now some doubt that she can finish the job.
With all due respect to Cyborg and Larissa
Pacheco, Ditcheva and Santos’
PFL Europe 2024 Finals showdown for the 2024 PFL Flyweight
Tournament Championship on Friday at King Saud University Stadium
in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, could be the most anticipated women’s MMA
fight in PFL history. Santos (22-3) is heavy-handed, has formidable
jiu-jitsu and is more battle-tested than Ditcheva (13-0). Ditcheva
is five years younger and has finished her last four opponents in
the first round. The better woman will win, but I believe it’s in
the PFL’s best interest to see the young Brit take this one. Let me
explain why.
Many of the top stars in the PFL have one thing in common: they’ve
lost outside the organization. Impa
Kasanganay has turned his career around, but until he chains
together championship after championship it would be a tough sell
to say he’s the best light heavyweight in the world when his UFC
stint ended well short of winning it all. An exception to this is
former Bellator king Brent
Primus, who is having a career resurgence and is fighting in
the lightweight tournament finale. Ditcheva can follow in Primus’
footsteps and prove that the PFL method works, but it will be from
a homegrown fighter against a proven commodity and Top 10 P4P
talent in Santos. This is a totally different ballgame.
It’s wild to think that Ditcheva wasn’t even fighting on the world
stage just a year ago. She had to earn her spot in the global
tournament with three straight finishes on the PFL Europe circuit.
After being elevated to the global PFL ranks, many believed she was
too raw to win a tournament with experienced foes like Santos and
Carmouche in the draw. Still, Ditcheva has proved doubters wrong,
one devastating knockout at a time.
No fighter — man or woman — has cruised through the season as
effortlessly as Ditcheva. Lisa
Mauldin and Chelsea
Hackett looked like day-one amateurs before her. Jena
Bishop, who took Santos to the wire in their regular season
matchup, was turned into mincemeat by Ditcheva’s distance
management, crisp punches and debilitating body attack. After
coming into the season as a dark horse, Ditcheva enters Friday’s
final as the betting favorite and for good reason.
If Ditcheva wins, it’ll mark her fifth win in less than 365 days,
and if she destroys Santos like she has everyone else, it would put
the entire combat sports world on notice.