For the first time in a long time, Dakota Ditcheva was not the darling of a PFL show.
On Friday night, Ditcheva squared off with Denise Kielholtz in the co-main event of PFL New York. It was Ditcheva’s first fight back in over a year, and she was a massive betting favorite, expected to put on a showcase performance over the longtime Bellator veteran. But while Ditcheva won a dominant decision, the fight was not well-received, with fans at the UBS Arena in Belmont Park, New York booing.
That’s not an
experience Ditcheva has had to deal with often in her career, and at her post-fight presser (h/t Home of Fight), “Dangerous” admitted that it got to her.
“It bothered me,” Ditcheva said. “Only because I’m passionate about the work I do, and I wanted a stoppage meself. But at the same time, words from my brother and my coach will be, always, ‘We don’t care about what anybody else thinks.’ It’s me in there fighting. I’m the one that’s in there to only kind of think about the boos for one second and get knocked out.
“So for me, it’s like, I don’t want them to boo, because I want to be exciting and entertaining for you guys, but at the same time, I’m in there fighting. I’m not in there, like, performing a dance. So, I have to do what’s right for me to get the win and come out on top, and that’s what I did today.”
Ditcheva certainly did that, sweeping all three judges’ scorecards after out-working Kielholtz for 15 minutes. And though the lack of a finish was disappointing, Ditcheva is trying to take the positives away from her fight.
“I got a good three rounds out of the fight,” Ditcheva said. “I’ve been out for a long time, so it’s good experience for me. My coaches are happy, because it’s valuable time in the cage that I need as an athlete and a fighter in order to keep progressing. First-round finishes are really good, and what we aim for, but at the same time, those minutes in the cage are what are gonna teach me the most. So, we’re taking that from it and moving to the next one.”
The “next one” appears to be a matchup with PFL champion Liz Carmouche. The two have seemingly been on a collision course for years, and now it finally seems to be the time for that to happen. But if that’s not the case, whoever Ditcheva fights next, she feels better prepared for the match after Friday.
“I just felt I was patient and comfortable,” Ditcheva said. “I’m not rushing. I’m trying to evolve as an athlete. I’m trying to see things a lot better. I don’t want to just be this fighter that is just throwing for the sake of it. I want to be able to see things, take my time, slip shots. I’m trying to evolve my game, and getting in a fight is not just a case of going wild. It’s a sport that is very calculated.
“So, I feel like today I was really patient, which is something that I worked on in my camp. I want to be able to not feel like I’ve got to rush and stop a fight, and quickly scramble or anything like that. I want to be able to slip and roll — I want it to look pretty! That’s what I feel like I tried to do today.”
