The expectations are sky high for PFL star Dakota Ditcheva, which may explain why the crowd turned against her a bit at the end of her women’s flyweight bout against Denise Kielholtz on Friday’s PFL New York card.
Ditcheva was a stunning -10,000 favorite to win against Kielholtz, and the 27 year old accomplished that with a one-sided 30-27×3 unanimous decision (highlights here). She didn’t hold back either, pushing the pace and landing endless kicks on Kielholtz up to the final bell. But the attendees
at UBS Arena expected a finish and some went so far as to boo as the fight went to a decision.
“It bothered me,” Ditcheva admitted during the post-fight press conference. “Only because I’m passionate about the work I do, and I wanted a stoppage myself. 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 [who’d] think about the boos for one second and get knocked out.”
“So for me, I don’t want them to boo because I want to be exciting and entertaining for you guys,” she continued. “But at the same time, I’m in there fighting. I’m not in there 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.”
The silver lining was that Ditcheva got a full 15 minutes of cage time in after a year away from competition.
“I got a good three rounds out of the fight, I’ve been out for a long time, so it’s good experience for me,” she said. “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.”
Next up for Ditcheva is a long-awaited fight with Liz Carmouche, widely considered to be the toughest potential opponent for Dakota on the roster. PFL CEO John Martin confirmed that was the fight the league planned to make, and that it would happen sooner rather than later as Ditcheva is eager to get some momentum going.
“I don’t have no message for [Carmouche],” Ditcheva said. “And I probably won’t when I’m fighting her. I will get in the cage, beat her, and that’ll be that. That’s it.”
