This past at the PFL World Championships from Saudi Arabia, there were six world champions crowned and six one million dollar checks handed out. In the co-main event of the massive card, former UFC title challenger Taila Santos (22-4) took on rising superstar Dakota Ditcheva (14-0).
Ditcheva came over to the PFL’s main roster for the 2024 season after winning the 2023 Europe championship. She had a ton of hype, but the world needed to see how she would do against better competition. She came out of the gates swinging with two first round finishes.
Ditcheva was then tasked with taking on Jena Bishop who only had one professional loss entering the bout with Ditcheva in the semifinals of the PFL’s season. Ditcheva ran through Bishop and finished her in the first round. Those three first round finishes led her to this bout with Taila Santos.
Santos is one of the best flyweights in the world. In the semifinals, she defeated Bellator flyweight champion Liz Carmouche who hadn’t lost in years after leaving the UFC for Bellator. Santos took P4P great and current UFC flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko to the brink and lost a very close split decision.
This was going to be the true test to see just how good Dakota Ditcheva is. Ditcheva passed the test with flying colors and she was able to finish Santos in the second round with a barrage of nasty body shot.
PFL’s New Superstar
Dakota Ditcheva said after winning the 2024 PFL Flyweight Championship that she’s not just a top ten flyweight in the world, but she believes that she’s a top ten P4P fighter in the world. Honestly, she very well might be one of the best ten fighters in the world.
PFL had a homegrown superstar in Kayla Harrison. An undefeated Olympian who ran through the competition and become a multiple time world champion for the organization. While completely different stylistically, history is repeating itself for the promotion with Dakota Ditcheva.
The promotion needs to do a better job handling Ditcheva than they did with Kayla Harrison especially at the end and I think they can with their new Super Fight branch. Harrison was clearly run down at the end of her PFL run and her only loss came in the finals of another long season.
Ditcheva has already expressed that she doesn’t want to do the season format again next year. It’s a pretty brutal schedule for the best fighters in the world and when you have a star like Ditcheva, you need to take care of her. My hope for the PFL is that they can provide big time fights for Ditcheva to keep building her up.