In some ways, 2024 has been a blur for 26-year-old Dakota Ditcheva, a kind of Sherman-esque march across oceans, through piles of warm-bodied flyweights, and into the Saudi Arabian desert where money and prizefighting are the local flora and fauna. One more victory is all it takes to cash a check for $1 million, which would put a bow on a star-making campaign that started back in April.
Then again, Ditcheva has logged only about 11 minutes of total work time this year, which — by any work rate measure you want to use — is a pretty sweet gig. Some people daydream longer than she’s competed in the cage. She’s finished opponents so quickly that the sweat never gets a chance to form on her brow. She’s smashed people’s livers through their rib cages with such vicious aggression that you see streaks of meanness hiding behind her smile when she tells you that she’s enjoying herself capitally.
“It has all just happened so fast, I can’t believe I started this journey,” she says, this time with Riyadh, Saudi Arabia as her backdrop. “My first fight was in April and already we’re nearly at Christmas. For me it is crazy, it just goes so quick. It’s funny, I started vlogging on YouTube at the start of this year so it’s going to be really interesting to watch it back and actually see how the year went.
“Because I don’t remember much of it at all, it’s gone that quick.”
Ditcheva, who’s undefeated in 13 pro fights, is about to face the most difficult challenge of her young fighting career when she takes on Taila Santos in the PFL’s women’s flyweight tournament final on Black Friday. Santos, you might remember, once took UFC legend Valentina Shevchenko into the very deep water in her title bid in the Octagon back in 2022, losing a highly subjective split decision. If anybody thinks Ditcheva has benefitted from fighting lesser competition — and to hear her tell it, there’s plenty of that sentiment to be found — that argument will come to an end against the Brazilian veteran.
“People seem to think highly of Taila Santos, so maybe after this fight I will [get the recognition],” she says. “But really, it’s not so much that I don’t get the recognition I deserve, but people talk a lot of rubbish on me about the people and fighting and things like that. That’s what frustrates me a little bit.”
Ditcheva’s hit list for the year thus far: Lisa Mauldin, Chelsea Hackett, and Jena Bishop, in San Antonio, Uncasville and Nashville. The PFL sets them up and she knocks them down. Usually with the kind of controlled aggression that is rarely seen at 125 pounds, which is one of the reasons Manchester’s own is quickly becoming a star.
That nastiness comes from pedigree. Ditcheva’s mother, Lisa Howarth, was a decorated kickboxing champion back in the 1980s and 1990s, the one who dealt the American Kathy Long the only loss on her record a full eight years before Dakota was born. Ditcheva likes to say that she is essentially a carbon copy of her mother. A kind of genetic baton pass from a time when there wasn’t a ton of money to be found in women’s combat to a time when the money is enough to reward two generations.
“She was world champion, but she didn’t really have anywhere to go after that because there was a lot less opportunity then,” Ditcheva says. “For me now, she would say that I’m probably past her. She would say herself that what I’ve achieved is 10 times better. But I suppose that’s the next generation resources that are available now and the opportunities that we get. I feel like my mum in this era would have been just as much as a killer as I am.”
They say that you enter the cage alone. That it’s just you in there once they latch the door, and it’s a fight game proverb meant to magnify that moment of truth. In Ditcheva’s case her mother’s experiences transfer to her in ways that at least deescalate the moment, no matter how big, which is the closest thing to a mental edge you can get at such a young age.
“Having somebody like my mum who’s been through the same emotions, the same pressure, just the same nerves, it’s like it’s having a little bit of a cheat code,” she says. “Just to understanding how I’m feeling, and I think she probably helps me through. If I hadn’t of had her, I probably would have struggled with a lot of difficult things in this sport. But having someone, a female as well, there’s not as many females that are in the sport. But having an actual female that’s been through the same thing is a real cheat code. She’s helped me a lot for sure.”
Let’s face it, Ditcheva may not look the part of a killer, but she hasn’t struggled much in the PFL. In eight total fights since debuting in August 2022, she’s finished seven of her opponents in the first round. Only one, Cornelia Horn, lasted beyond that, but she ended up gasping for breath after a brutal body shot ended things in the third round. So far nobody has been able to withstand the kind of power Ditcheva brings to the cage.
Or the pressure.
“I think it’s just the aggression that I bring,” she says. “I am only a slight build. I’m very tall, a lot taller than most opponents, but I’m quite slim. People don’t expect me to have the power and the strength that I do. I think it’s more of the fact that I just know the aggression — knowing how to use it and when to use it — all comes together as one on the night.”
It’s been a whirlwind of a 2024 for Ditcheva, whose nickname is “Dangerous.” Triple D. Perhaps in the new year she will look back over her video vlog and see everything she missed as she crashed through the PFL field. The next fight is always the biggest, but when you’re 26 and on the edge of breaking through, identifying the moment when you officially take over is something to savor.
Does that moment happen on Black Friday in Riyadh? Can she become the first to finish a former UFC contender, who has twice the experience and a full head of steam? That’s perhaps looking at it the wrong way. In Ditcheva’s eyes, the question is how will Santos deal with her?
“Taila’s definitely going to have to be careful with me,” she says. “But 100%, I know she’s going to be probably the toughest out of most. She hasn’t been stopped, and there’s not many fighters that can say that these days, so all credit to her. I know that she’s going to be a tough one.
“But at the same time, I think what I bring will probably shock her. I think she underestimates me a little bit as well, so we’ll see what happens. It’ll be a big moment if I do get that highlight finish because of the fact that she’s not been stopped, and people don’t expect it against her.”
