By Oliver Salt
Updated on June 13, 2024 at 13:28 and June 13, 2024 at 13:32
Being the daughter of a former kickboxing world champion means that for Dakota Dycheva, fighting has always been in her blood.
The current PFL Women's Flyweight European Champion, Ditcheva has established herself as one of the promotion's most promising prospects. She has won all 11 of her MMA bouts to date, 10 of which have been by stoppage, and looks set to be a force to be reckoned with in this season's world tournaments.
The English girl from Sale, Greater Manchester, is following in the footsteps of her legendary mother, Lisa Howarth, and forging her own path, but with a sense of predestination that, had Lisa had it her way, it would not have been the same for her daughter.
“To be honest, my mother never wanted me to become a fighter, she wanted me to do something else,” Ditcheva said about her mother in an exclusive interview with Dailymail.com.
“She's been through it all herself so she knows how hard it is and what it takes. It was not something she wanted for her daughter.”
With her own impressive pedigree – having been world champion in not only kickboxing but also Muay Thai and karate – Lisa wanted to protect Dakota from the brutality she'd faced on her own journey to the top, but her words of warning did little to deter her.
Two years after first putting on gloves at age four, Ditcheva witnessed the very danger her mother had warned her about.
“My brother Cody did martial arts,” she recalled, when asked about her first martial arts memory. “He slipped in the corner during a round and this kid kneed him in the mouth, cutting his lip and all his gums.”
“That's my earliest memory of fighting, but it didn't stop me.”
Despite this brutality hitting so close to home, Dakota didn't give up. At 13, she tried her hand at Muay Thai, just like Lisa had done years before, and it soon became clear she had inherited her mother's genes.
First, as an amateur, she won four straight world championships, then as a professional, winning 15 of 17 matches. “Every match I went to, people were saying, 'Look at this, that's Lisa Howard's daughter,' so people noticed my talent from a very young age,” she recalled.
Then an injury forced the 25-year-old, half-Bulgarian (her father Ivar was born in Samokov) to put her budding Muay Thai career on hold, at which point she reassessed her plans and considered her options. The result? A move into the world of mixed martial arts, which she argues is far more complicated.
“You need jiu-jitsu, you need striking, you need wrestling – you need to mix it all together,” Ditcheba explains.
“I switched from Thai boxing. [Muay Thai]I had to change my style a bit, but I think the fact that he had such an impressive background worked to my advantage.
“I was able to keep my style and make a good transition into the MMA world. I don't know if it would have been the same if I had a background in jiu-jitsu. I would have had to learn striking and it might have taken a little longer, but I think I did well in that respect and I learned it pretty well.”
Although the transition to a new profession was daunting, Ditcheva took to mixed martial arts like a fish in water.
Two years after her transition, the former Muay Thai prospect stepped into the cage for her first professional bout in April 2021. It took just two minutes and four seconds before she raised her hand.
Four more wins followed, three of which were stoppage wins, before the PFL called. The American MMA promotion, which consists of a league and playoff tournament, has grown in popularity in recent years, and Ditcheva got the chance to join in 2022.
'[The concept] “It was kind of new for me, so it took me a while to figure it out,” she admits.
In the PFL, fighters earn points for wins and bonus points for knockouts, all of which are added up towards the league standings. This system helped Ditcheva win her first European Women's Flyweight Championship last year, earning her a huge $100,000 prize and the recognition that comes with proving you're the best in your field.
But despite what has become something of a tradition of rewarding herself with new shoes for every fight and victory she has had, the Manchester native has struggled to truly celebrate her success inside the cage.
“It was definitely a big milestone, but I don't think I'm someone who gets happy easily,” she said of her PFL Europe win.
“You should be a little more proud of where you're heading and the little things, but I always have the next goal in mind, and sometimes that takes away the good from what you're accomplishing now.”
“But it was definitely a milestone. Now we feel like we've conquered Europe and we've made it globally.” [stage] now.'
Tonight, Ditcheva will compete in her second PFL regular season bout when she takes on Australia's Chelsea Hackett in Uncasville, Connecticut.
She's no longer competing against Europe's elite – this league table features rivals from Brazil, the USA, Japan and Australia, showing how far Lisa Howarth's daughter has already come on her martial arts journey.
But despite her astonishingly rapid rise, Ditcheva admits: “I still don't have much confidence in myself. I still have confidence, I know I belong here, I know I'm a very good talent.”
“But at the same time, so do a lot of other people.”
Dedicating herself to the blood, sweat and tears of martial arts has taken a toll on her social life, meaning she misses days off, parties and even strained some friendships in the process.
“I've definitely had to miss out on a lot. My life looks very different to all my friends' and that can be tough sometimes. It's not a normal life,” she admits.
“I've lost a lot of friends along the way, just because I couldn't keep up with it, the demands of travel, etc.”
“A lot of my friends now have kids, boyfriends, they've all bought houses and are settled down. But I don't have any property yet. I'm still flying around, I don't have a boyfriend yet, I can't go to parties, I can't go on holidays. I can't participate in some of that.”
But it was all worth it. “I wouldn't change anything,” Dicheva emphasizes. “Look at what I've achieved and what I have now.”
“I've learned over the last few years that this is normal life for me and it doesn't have to be the same for everyone else. I've kind of gotten used to the fact that it's okay that my life is like this and that I don't have kids yet and that I don't have a home yet. It's just taken me a while to get used to and accept it.”
“But I definitely don't want to change it.”
But one thing Dycheva would like to change is the stereotypes surrounding women's combat sports as the sport continues to grow in popularity.
A quick look at her Instagram account, which is filled with photos of racy nights out as much as it is MMA content, shows the PFL sensation in a very different light outside of the sport. The public would never guess that she makes a living with her fists and kicks, yet she is often reminded of this. So why is the appearance of female fighters such a frequent topic of conversation?
“This stigma has to change,” Dycheva said. “One of the first things people say is, 'You don't look like a fighter' and I'm like, 'Why?'”
“I know what they're thinking… I mean, I don't look rough! I don't want to look rough, not even when I'm fighting, not at all.”
“I think people need to accept that people can have dual personalities. I do too. The person I am in training and in the cage is completely different to who I am outside. But that's okay. I can be both.”
“Everyone seems to think that if you're a fighter, you have to be this tough girl all the time. I'm tough in the gym, I'm tough when I fight, but outside I just want to be a normal girl like any other person who likes to dress up and wear pink.”
“And I think the more I continue to do that and show both sides of it, the faster that stereotype will fade away.”
Over the next five months, Ditcheva will face challengers from around the world in a bid to become the PFL Women's Flyweight World Champion, a feat that would earn her 10 times the prize money she already holds as the European equivalent champion.
If she wins the title, Dakota will become a billionaire in the United States.
But the question she is frequently asked concerns the UFC and whether she sees a future with MMA's premier organization. For now, her eyes haven't strayed from the PFL.
“I want to win a world title this year, and after that I feel the PFL offers me different opportunities. If I want to box, I can box, so there aren't many restrictions,” she explains.
“They just merged with Bellator, so now I get to fight some Bellator fighters. They also have cards scheduled in Saudi Arabia, so I can fight there and gain more fans.”
“I feel like they're creating a lot of opportunities right now, so I'm just focused on winning this tournament and seeing what the PFL has to offer.”
Ditcheva's immediate aim is to surpass Hackett in PFL4 and maintain his top spot, just like his beloved Manchester City.
A lifelong fan of the Premier League champions, she has been performing victorious routines for certain City players following their PFL wins, with some of them going viral on social media.
“I think the first one was in Paris, [Erling] “He sat on the floor,” she laughs, “and it just got really bad from there.”
“City accepted it and were very happy with it. But I [Jeremy] Doku Griddy… I tried it anyway! And, [Phil] Same for Foden.
But Thursday night in Uncasville left her a bit out of ideas: “I don't know what to do next…”
