PFL Championships: Dakota Ditcheva vs. Taila Santos Preview

Val Dewar

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PFL Championships: Dakota Ditcheva vs. Taila Santos Preview image

(PFL MMA)

The hottest rising star in women's MMA is Manchester’s undefeated sensation Dakota Ditcheva, a farang in Muay Thai who turned her focus to mixed martial arts. Last year she won a PFL Europe title and now at age 26 she is in the finals of the main PFL season.

Each fight leading up to now has been her toughest yet, but the leap from Chelsea Hackett to Jena Bishop is much greater than the one from Jena to Taila Santos. 

Ditcheva’s deadly striking abilities may meet their match in Santos, a former UFC title challenger who many fans thought should have beaten all-time great women's flyweight Valentina Shevchenko in their fight. 

Taila is almost equally skilled in every area, having grown up training Muay Thai under her father, and later jiu-jitsu as well, in her native Brazil. She may not be exceptional in any one area, but she will not be clueless on the feet like BJJ specialist Jena Bishop, and will have better takedowns. 

I have no doubt Dakota will still be the better striker; she is an educated striker against foes in both stances, she hits the body which is a rarity in women's MMA, and she knows how to make reads and build on her offense as the fight progresses. 

At 5'8” ‘Dangerous’ Dakota is tall for her division, which helps her live up to that nickname, given that so much of her offense stems from her kicking attack, with push kicks and round kicks both. 

Her clinch striking is also deadly with her knees from the collar tie, but Bishop proved that when Ditcheva prioritizes damage she can be taken down. 

Taila was shown laughing at cageside when that takedown occurred, but it gave Dakota the opportunity to show she can get back to her feet. She did that, wall-walking up within a minute. Santos was not laughing then. 

Still, I do believe Santos has enough in her toolkit to take the Brit down and hold her down. It may be a boring fight over five rounds if Taila can do so; I would much prefer to see a Ditcheva striking masterclass with her beautiful kicks, clinch attacks, deadly body hitting, and rare knockout power for women's flyweight. 

Taking down Valentina Shevchenko and controlling her for a full third of a fight is not a unique achievement, but it should be a lot harder than doing the same to Ditcheva, who has not been training jiu-jitsu all her life. 

Santos also being more comparable physically to ‘Dangerous’ Dakota than Jena Bishop was is also significant, the athletic disparity is small, if it exists at all.

This star from the UK is a favorite against a woman twice as experienced as her, but she may have met her match at last. 

Val Dewar

Val Dewar Photo

Val was initiated into Steelers Nation from the moment he was born — his first memory is a game vs. New England from when "Slash" was QB — and doing sports writing has always been a dream career for him. In 2022 he broke into the industry by writing about combat sports for Cageside Press, and now has the opportunity to continue that work with TSN as an MMA writer, as well as get his feet wet on the Steelers beat.