Dakota Ditcheva’s star potential was clear to see when she made her MMA debut three years ago.
In her younger years, ‘Dangerous’ was a kickboxing and Muay Thai sensation looking to follow in the footsteps of her multiple-time world-champion mother, Lisa Howarth.
In 2021, she made the transition to MMA. Today, the 26-year-old Englishwoman is the PFL flyweight champion after knocking out former UFC title challenger Taila Santos with ease to increase her perfect record to 14-0 in November.
Dakota Ditcheva is also one of the top five pound-for-pound female fighters in MMA after banking a $1million cheque for breezing her way through PFL’s 125lb tournament.
Dakota Ditcheva’s ‘absolute masterclass’ MMA debut
Fellow pro-MMA newbie Jenny Line was the unlucky fighter standing across from Dakota Ditcheva in her MMA debut at Cage Steel 25, which took place in Sheffield, England, on April 10, 2021.
Ditcheva bounced around like a veteran as she switched stances and threw nasty kicks from the opening bell.
It was clear her opponent was not going to be a problem. Line continuously backed to the cage fence to protect herself, but it didn’t help as by the one-minute mark she was taking clean Muay Thai elbows to the chin.
A few knees from the clinch position sent Line crashing to the floor where Ditcheva got a brief chance to show off her rarely-seen ground skills.
Intent on scoring a highlight-reel knockout, Manchester’s favorite fighter let her opponent get back up.
Ditcheva connected with a huge spinning below before finishing the fight with a knee to Line’s face.
The Caged Steel commentator branded Ditcheva’s performance ‘an absolute masterclass’ as the referee called off the fight after just 124 seconds. It’s hard to disagree with that assessment if you’ve watched the below footage of the dominant debut win.
What will Dakota Ditcheva spend her $1million on?
Ditcheva is becoming accustomed to cashing in just before the Christmas period.
In 2023, she earned a $100,000 payday for becoming PFL’s European flyweight champion. A year later, she’s got an extra $1million to spend after establishing herself as arguably the best 125lb fighter in the sport.
What will Ditcheva spend her first million on? Bloody Elbow asked her that question during a recent exclusive interview
Ditcheva said: “Last year when I won the European it was a few days before Christmas and this time I’m not getting away with nothing now I have the million!
“But they deserve it. My family can have whatever they want, that money is theirs, they can have whatever they want.
“My little brother is having a field day right now, whenever mum said ‘You need to get a job, what are you doing?’ He’d tell us, ‘It’s fine, Dakota will be rich’.
“My little brother’s car is basically about to break down anyway. So, I’m like ‘Are you going to work a few more shifts so you can get a new one?’ And he says ‘Nah’. So, I’m sure he’ll be asking me for a car very soon. I’ve got a few ideas but my little brother’s definitely going to get a car out of me.”
Ditcheva says her brother, Cody, has helped her financially when times were tough, and now she’s absolutely delighted to be in a position to pay him back tenfold.
“When I came over to America first I wasn’t in the best place and I didn’t have any money,” she explained. “My brother sent a package to my door and it was a new pair of wrestling shoes that I didn’t have, so he bought them.
“He’s sacrificed so much and it’s nice now that I can finally start giving it back. We’ve always talked about it in terms of changing my family’s life, my mum and dad’s together as siblings and we haven’t been in the position where we can do that financially.
“But even though we’ve talked about it together he’s still always sacrificed whatever he can in order to help the family and me. So anything I have is his as well, it’s all shared because we do it together and I couldn’t do it without him.”