(Exclusive) Dakota Ditcheva Wants "Massive" Manchester Event after Winning PFL Title

"Dangerous" is poised for a huge 2025 after collecting her second PFL belt.

(Jose Peñuela / PFL)

Perhaps no fighter had a bigger year than Dakota Ditcheva, and MMA KO’s Drew Beaupré had the opportunity to speak with the undefeated star after she stopped Taila Santos to become the 2024 PFL Women’s Flyweight Champion.

"It Was A Really Special Moment"

One of the biggest perks of winning a PFL tournament is being awarded a $1 Million check, and while Ditcheva did use some of the money to treat herself after a long season the 26-year-old says the best moment after her win was when she received the women’s flyweight belt from her mother.

“I’m going straight to Chanel today,” Ditcheva said with a laugh. “I want a new bag. I could have got one after my first fight, my second, my third, but I said, “You’re not having a Chanel bag until you’ve won the world title.’”

Ditcheva's mother handed her the PFL belt in Riyadh. / (Jose Peñuela / PFL)

“I didn’t know PFL were gonna [have her award the belt], it was a really special moment for sure. I keep looking at the photos back of my mum handing it to me. But it must have seemed a surreal moment for her as well, to see her daughter become world champion. Obviously, she was a world champion, so a very special moment. I want my mum to be involved in my career the whole way. She’s the reason that I’m here, and she supports me so much and I definitely couldn’t do it without her. So for her to give me the belt - I’m gonna give it back anyway, ‘cause it’s going up in her house, she deserves it with my dad.”

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"I Don't Think She Respected Me"

The 2024 PFL World Championship saw Ditcheva square off with former UFC title challenger Taila Santos in a matchup that many fans viewed as a significant step up in competition, but “Dangerous” passed the test with flying colors when she stopped Santos with body shots in the second round.

Santos (right) came within a scorecard of winning the UFC women's flyweight title. / (Jose Peñuela / PFL)

“[Santos was] less of a challenge [than expected], if I’m honest. But I’m not surprised that I stopped her the way I did, because I envisioned – I wanted four. After the third stoppage, for sure in this season I wanted a fourth. I wanted to finish the season running through everybody. And I think because everyone really thought I was gonna be tested by Taila, I wanted the stoppage even more. I feel like I would have been disappointed with just a decision win. Everyone would have been like ‘Oh yeah, but she didn’t stop her like she stopped the other girls.’ So it was very satisfying to kind of prove my point that way. But yeah, I was ready for a five-round fight because she’s never been stopped before, and I really respect her. Which is probably where she went wrong, I don’t think she respected me and took me very serious."

Ditcheva has impressively won all but one of her pro bouts via finish, and when asked if she feels like she’s raising the bar for striking in MMA the 26-year-old indicated that her main focus is providing highlight-reel stoppages for the fans watching her fights.

Ditcheva fought off Santos' takedown attempts and dismantled her on the feet. / (Jose Peñuela / PFL)

“I would say [I'm raising the bar], but if I’m being completely honest, sometimes I watch myself back and I’m like, ‘I’m not really very exciting'. The stoppage is exciting, but when I watch myself fight sometimes I’m honestly not that impressed. So I don’t really know what people enjoy apart from the stoppage. But yeah, definitely bring a lot of different shots that you don’t see often, and I think that’s probably why people talk about me so highly is because I try different things. And with that body shot, I’ve had three stoppages with that this season. So it’s definitely been a move that we’ll probably see a lot more people start to use.”

"I Wanna Be Fighting Better Competition"

“Dangerous” has all kinds of options available for 2025 as an undefeated fighter that’s won both the PFL Europe and global PFL tournaments, and while she is open to participating in the PFL season again next year Ditcheva feels like there might be bigger things on the horizon.

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“I’ll do the tournament again, like it’s a tough year but I can definitely do it again. I think it’s tough for some people if you 1) Have a bad weight cut, if you’re walking around too heavy. And then 2) If you’re not living in the gym, if you wanna like have a big splurge after you fight then it’s difficult, you’ve gotta get back on it. So I would definitely do the tournament again no problem, but I don’t know whether that’s the best thing for me. I feel like it would make more sense to put me on like a PPV card or just a normal card where you've got one big fight against one big name, I think people would tune in there. And I wanna go to Manchester next year, I really think they should come to Manchester. That would mean that I wouldn't be in the tournament, and I would happily do that if they would bring a card to Manchester.”

"Dangerous" has already established herself as one of the PFL's biggest stars. / (Jose Peñuela / PFL)

“It’s still early days, I haven’t really had the conversation about it [with the PFL]. But I could do like a champ v. champ versus Liz [Carmouche], but then Taila beat Liz. If I’d had a close fight like she did with Taila it would make sense, but I didn’t. So I don’t know whether that would make sense now or not...It’s hard, because if I go into another season fighting the same girls, am I gonna get better doing that? And I wanna be getting better and I wanna be fighting better competition. So it’s difficult, we’ll have to see what we can come up with. But I think the Manchester card is like the main thing I wanna do.”

"Bring A Card To Manchester"

Fellow Manchester-native Brendan Loughnane fell short of winning his second PFL featherweight title at the 2024 World Championship when he lost a decision to Timur Khizriev in the card’s main event, but if the PFL decides to head to Manchester next year then Ditcheva knows Loughnane would return for an incredible homecoming card.

“Brendan’s been away from home for so long. Honestly, that would be the only thing that would bring Brendan back. I think he’s done with the seasons, he doesn’t even wanna do it anymore…I think the only thing that will bring him back would be one fight in Manchester, and that would honestly sell out. For everyone to see Brendan back in Manchester would be massive, and I hope I would get a lot of people myself now in Manchester too. And plus, with the fact that PFL have been in Europe, there’s load of up-and-coming names at the moment, there’s so many…We could definitely do a massive Manchester card, it would be silly not to.”

Is a homecoming event in Manchester on the horizon for 2025? / (Jose Peñuela / PFL)

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“I’ve had such an amazing year fighting in the States, that was like my first year building a fan base here. So it’s been amazing to pick up loads of fans, I appreciate everyone coming to watch and watching me this year throughout the tournament. And hopefully now we can come up with a few more big fights and ones that are probably really exciting for everyone to carry on being entertained by."

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