The PFL continues to stack the deck for their first card of 2026. This morning, CEO John Martin announced that promotional star Dakota Ditcheva (15-0) will also be making her return on that February card as she takes on former Bellator title challenger Denise Kielholtz (8-5).
Love to see Ditcheva back, but I am a little surprised at the matchup. I figured after Liz Carmouche won the PFL flyweight world tournament last year, it was a layup to book her against Ditcheva for the first official flyweight world title. However, the promotion did not book that fight.
I did reach out this morning to promotional officials just to check, but at the time of writing, I have not heard back. Nevertheless, this is an awesome matchup of strikers and it gets arguably the promotion’s biggest star back in the cage.
That said, let’s focus on Kielholtz for a second. This will be her first fight in over two years. The last time she fought was in November 2023 when she defeated Sumiko Inaba. Of course, Inaba would go on to win two straight after that loss and she became the last fighter to take on Dakota Ditcheva.
Kielholtz got her Bellator title fight against Julianna Velasquez back in 2021 when she was 6-2. She lost a split decision and then she was submitted by Kana Watanabe. Following that, she lost another split decision so she’s had some bad fortune on the scorecards.
Now, lets focus on the PFL’s star, Dakota Ditcheva. Ditcheva signed a new deal with the promotion last year after vocalizing some frustrations regarding match making. I think that she is going to feel refreshed under John Martin’s leadership and she’s already back in the cage in February. Don’t be shocked if the plan is for her to fight three times next year.
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