Sherdog Prospect Watch: Dakota Ditcheva

The Professional Fighters League reeled in one of the more intriguing prospects in the world when it agreed to terms with Dakota Ditcheva. She will appear in the first women’s flyweight fight in the company’s history when she takes on Hassna Gaber as part of the PFL 9 event this Saturday at Copperbox Arena in London. Ditcheva carries an undefeated record that features an eye-catching 80% finish rate.

Before she took up mixed martial arts Ditcheva built a solid striking base in muay Thai—a discipline in which she won a national championship. Her approach reflects her background, as she attacks opponents with savage elbows and knee strikes. Ditcheva’s transition to MMA has gone smoothly by most accounts, as she has also managed to showcase some effective ground-and-pound from time to time. She recently proved she possessed the requisite cardio to go three rounds when she upended Paula Cristina dos Santos Silva by unanimous decision at a UAE Warriors show on March 26.


Ditcheva made her pro MMA debut a little more than a year ago when she squared off with Jenny Line at Caged Steel 25 in April 2021. “Dangerous Dakota” overwhelmed her counterpart with clinical striking before putting an end to the contest with elbows and knees. The referee called for the stoppage 2:04 into Round 1 in what remains Ditcheva’s fastest finish to date. Her sophomore appearance concluded with another exclamation point, as she stopped Kerry Isom with punches in the first round of their Celtic Gladiator 30 confrontation on Sept. 12. A little more than two months later, Ditcheva smashed Patricia Borges Fernandes with elbows and earned another first-round technical knockout at a UK Fighting Championships event.

The 24-year-old Ditcheva has already competed twice in 2022. In addition to her aforementioned decision over Cristina dos Santos Silva, the Manchester Top Team product tested herself against Simone da Silva in the Pallas Athena Women’s Fighting Championship 1 co-headliner on Jan. 15. Though Ditcheva needed more time than usual to secure a stoppage, she closed out da Silva with punches 3:43 into the second round.

Now armed with a perfect 5-0 record, Ditcheva gets the opportunity to ply her trade in front of an entirely new audience. The PFL appears to have big plans for her.