UFC veteran and former world title contender Taila Santos feels that Dakota Ditcheva has yet to earn the hype and ‘push’ she’s been receiving thus far in her career.
The British flyweight has received strong promotional backing from the PFL since making her debut under the banner since signing with them in 2022 with a 5-0 record. She has stopped all seven of her fights for the promotion with just one going past the first, and picked up European gold last year.
But Santos, one of the most decorated competitors in this year’s Global Season with Ditcheva, is unsure if she has lived up to the hype just yet. The pair are opposite sides of the bracket tonight in Nashville, with the Brazilian facing legendary Liz Carmouche and Ditcheva taking on Jena Bishop.
Taila Santos pours cold water on Dakota Ditcheva’s hype as PFL collision course continues
Once again this weekend, Dakota Ditcheva has landed herself a co-main event slot just under the heavyweights in Nashville. And Taila Santos feels she and Carmouche deserve that slot, noting that they both have considerably more extensive resumés.
In fact, Santos isn’t sure that Ditcheva has yet proven that she is worthy of the promotional hype she is getting. Asked by Bloody Elbow about it this week, Santos replied: “I believe this is the event where we find out a lot about Dakota and how good she actually is.
“I think she’s been having a little push from the promotional side and if it’s warranted or not, she is going to have her chance to prove now. But so far from what I’ve seen on the footage and what I’ve seen live, she’s not everything that they’re pushing her to be. Not yet, at least.”
Taila Santos disputes critics of her win over Jena Bishop to earn playoff spot
Last time out at Mohegan Sun in June, Santos managed to hand Bishop her first defeat as a professional after eight fights. The bout ended in split decision, and there have been arguments made by many viewers that Bishop did enough to take the win.
“I don’t know where the talk about the decision being iffy comes from,” Santos explained when asked if she understood the critiques and people picking against her. “Because I think I won pretty clearly, but it’s a tournament.”
Asked who she would rather fight, she noted that having already faced Bishop once, she would rather new competition. “I would prefer to face Dakota mainly because I just fought Jena and I haven’t fought her before.
“But there’s a very good chance that Jena wins and we will be seeing each other again in the finals. I think Jena wins and I’m going to be cheering for Jena even though I want to fight Dakota.”
Dakota Ditcheva unfazed by critics as PFL winning run continues
As for Dakota Ditcheva, she has remained uninterested in what the critics have to say, and plans on keeping proving them wrong. “People are underestimating me a little bit and being disrespectful,” she told Bloody Elbow.
“But then do I look into what people are saying and does it bother me? Not really, so for me I just have to keep training in the gym, working hard and performing and that will end up being kind of the most important part.
“People always find the negative rather than the positive. But that’s okay, it’s kind of how the sport goes and you just have to take that with people’s opinions for sure.”