After Dakota Ditcheva was able to capture a first-round TKO victory at the season opener for the PFL 2024, she took aim at one of her fellow tournament competitors Taila Santos.
Dakota Ditcheva
The English-Bulgarian “Dangerous” Ditcheva was able to capture the PFL Europe 2023 tournament title defeating all of her opponents by way of stoppage. Thus far in the PFL, the unbeaten striker has won five out of six of her matches by way of KO/TKO. The 25-year-old athlete was a champion in Muay Thai and kickboxing before transitioning to MMA.
After capturing the PFL Europe strawweight title in 2023 for $100,000, Ditcheva was moved to the PFL regular season tournament for the 2024 season with a potential $1,000,000 on the line. After the first event, the remaining four fighters are Dakota Ditcheva, former Bellator Champion Liz Carmouche, Kana Watanabe, and former UFC contender Taila Santos.
In an interview, Santos discussed Ditcheva and said: “I’d like to fight Dakota, I feel like she’s on a hype train right now and I don’t really feel like she’s fought anyone.”
In response, Ditcheva said: “We’re both elite strikers so it’d be a very good fight, but I don’t know what’s going to play out in the next round, it could be then that we face each other and not in the final. I know she’s commented on my posts before saying she wants Barbie’s belt which is a European belt for a start so she can’t have it and two, she’s got to get it off me so she wouldn’t get it either.”
“She got beat by Erin Blanchfield, right? Did we all watch Erin’s fight last weekend, she didn’t have the best performance and Erin beat her so that’s all I’ve got to say on that.”
Brazil’s Taila Santos was able to defeat Ilara Joanne in her PFL debut. Prior to this, she was a competitor in the UFC’s strawweight division holding wins over fighters such as Joanne Wood, Molly McCann, and Roxanne Modafferi.
Lastly, the English-born athlete added: “Expect more violence, a lot more vicious, a lot more skill and a lot more knockouts.”