Dakota Ditcheva revered Ronda Rousey as one of her heroes as she was working towards becoming a professional fighter, but one “disgraceful” comment changed her opinion on the UFC Hall of Famer forever.
Back in May as she was promoting her return from retirement with a fight booked against Gina Carano in MVP MMA, Rousey blasted former UFC champion Khamzat Chimaev after he said she should be “grateful” towards the UFC for making her a superstar after she spent weeks trashing her former employers. In
response, Rousey made an offhanded remark about Chimaev calling him “cleft lip Lincoln” and then bashing his wrestling heavy style in the cage.
Immediatley afterwards, Ditcheva denounced those remarks about Chimaev’s cleft palate and admitted she’s “no longer a fan” of Rousey’s after holding her in such high regard for so many years. Now as she prepares for her own comeback fight in the PFL in July, Ditcheva admits that she’d rather not keep taking aim at Rousey, but she has no regrets about what she said after the former UFC women’s bantamweight champion just took an unnecessary low blow at Chimaev.
“It did [change my opinion of her],” Ditcheva said about Rousey when speaking to MMA Fighting. “I don’t want to keep bashing her. I said my point and that’s that. But it did disappoint me a little bit. I feel like I hopefully, touch wood, will always be the same person.
“I don’t feel like you have to cross any of those personal lines in order to get something good out of this sport. We’re already gifted so many good opportunities, we don’t need to act in this crazy way in order to get more.”
Ditcheva believes Rousey was already going to get plenty of attention coming back after 10 years away from the sport as she sought to return to the win column following two brutal knockout losses that ended her career in 2016.
But much of Rousey’s pre-fight promotion was spent criticizing the UFC and then she decided to get really personal with her insult aimed at Chimaev.
While Chimaev never really responded to the remarks, Ditcheva just didn’t like that somebody as popular as Rousey used such a low blow to fire back at comments made about her.
“I feel like for me, her coming back was massive,” Ditcheva explained. “I feel like she has enough accolades to just come back and win your fight without having to talk that way. I feel like now she’s gone out worse than other people made out for me, which is sad.
“But she did a great thing with MVP, and I don’t want to keep bashing her, but yeah, that comment was not OK for me at all.”
Ditcheva has definitely witnessed similar behavior from UFC superstars like Conor McGregor, who spent weeks trying to get under Dustin Poirier’s skin by constantly taking aim at his wife while working towards their trilogy back in 2021.
As much as that bothered her as well, Rousey was somebody that Ditcheva personally revered and now that one remark has completely changed how she feels about the former UFC champion.
“That’s what a lot of people have been coming back at me [with], ‘Oh you didn’t say anything about this person, you didn’t say anything about them,’” Ditcheva said. “I’m like I know but Ronda was somebody I looked up to. As a woman, as well, I felt like I wanted to say something.
“But I don’t agree with any of that stuff either, but I feel like Ronda shouldn’t have come down to that level. I feel like she should have stuck where she was. She was high up, she achieved so much, and I don’t feel like she needed to come down to their level and be that person.”
