Dakota Ditcheva Talks Injury, Comeback and New York Return

PFL's Dakota Ditcheva is set to return after a difficult two years, which has seen her compete just once since November 2024, the British star is back and fit to fight. Scheduled to face Denise Kielholtz in New York on July 31st, Ditcheva sat down with Dan Hardy to discuss all about her return, her injury and how she sees her upcoming fight playing out.

After bursting onto the scene, Ditcheva's career has somewhat stalled, albeit, completely out of her control. She struggled to get fights after all but wiping out the division after defeating Talia Santos in 2024. She would then go on to face Sumiko Inaba in South Africa and during the fight, broke her hand. She has been out since that fight, which took place in July of last year.

Dakota Ditcheva - Back and Ready to Roll

Injury

Discussing her hand injury with Dan Hardy, Ditcheva stated "You have to try and forget about it/ I'm doing everything I was doing before it was broken so for now, it's just the mind. I don't have any evidence to suggest the hand isn't as strong as it was before, I'm hitting just as hard as I was before".

Training

When asked about training at American Top Team, Ditcheva said "Walking into Top Team, I love it there. I love the life there as well. The training - I'm humbled every day. When I get ready for training in the morning, I'm nervous. But that's what makes me go and those feeling are what I live for every day.

"I train with the boys, train with the girls. I switch it up all the time, I spar the boys, sometimes I spar the girls".

Upcoming Fight

Dakota Ditcheva is always going to be confident, but respectful. Discussing her opponent she stated:

"I've watched her for years. I watched her when I was in Thai boxing, one of my favourite fights of hers was against Tiffany (Van Soest) which was a big female fight at the time and one of my favourite to watch so erm, yeah I've watched her for a long time.

I watched her in Bellator. She's aggressive, kickboxing style which is what I like, I quite like the kickboxing style over the Thai-boxing, the traditional Thai boxing is a bit slow for me and she's got that like fast style so, I'm excisted just to have a striking match if that's what happens. We'll see but she's a good opponent, it's a shame we have got to fight but it is what it is."

Discussing Kielholtz's last fight, Ditcheva said "I was impressed. First one back after having a kid so obviously ring rust. My first one back last time wasn't the best either but yeah I'm hoping she comes with a little bit more against me. I felt that she was a little bit more waiting on the coutners more in that fight. I hope she brings it a little bit more so we can have a good scrap but I'm excited anyway".

Ditcheva vs Kielholtz will go down on July 31st from New York City's UBS Arena. The event will be headlined by UImar Nurmagomedov taking on the undefeated, Archie Colgan.