Dakota Ditcheva has her hands back, and she’s already volunteering to break them again. The unbeaten PFL flyweight is ready to return and would fight through any more broken hands if necessary, MMA Mania reported Sunday. That came two days after she walked into the SmartCage at PFL Chicago to stare down the division’s brand-new champion, Jena Bishop.
The timing matters. Ditcheva (16-0) broke both of her hands in her last fight, a decision win over Denise Kieholtz in July. She said on the PFL Chicago broadcast Friday that she’d just been cleared for full-contact training. Nolan King noted on X that the clearance to start punching again came only the day before. She didn’t waste the airtime.
“Now that I’ve been cleared, I want to be the next person to fight for [the belt],” Ditcheva said on the broadcast. “I know everyone calls me a prima donna, but if I’m not next in line, I might kick up a fuss a little bit.”
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She also owned the elephant in the room, admitting “I do keep injuring myself,” before naming a window: “I’m ready to go, February or March I would love to get in and challenge someone for the belt.” King wrote that the broadcast was hinting at early 2027, which lines up neatly with her ask.
The champion waiting for her
The someone turned out to be Bishop (12-3), who took the inaugural PFL women’s flyweight title from Liz Carmouche on Friday at Wintrust Arena with a unanimous decision, 48-47 on all three cards. It was a genuine five-round fight. Carmouche (26-9) dropped Bishop with a short hook late in Round 1 and had her hanging on. Bishop then took over through the middle rounds, taking the back in Round 3, before Carmouche rallied with cleaner striking in the fourth. Bishop sealed it in Round 5 by timing a takedown, moving to back control and spending most of the frame hunting a rear-naked choke that she briefly sank in. That avenged Carmouche’s TKO win over her from last August, when the 42-year-old veteran entered as a heavy favorite.
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After the decision, Ditcheva came in for the faceoff. MMA Fighting reported that the two will rematch for the title sometime next year. They’ve done this before. Ditcheva beat Bishop by TKO in 2024, one of the two straight losses Bishop took (the other to Taila Santos) before rebuilding her way to a title.
Quick take
I love this fight, and I’d pick Ditcheva again, with one big asterisk attached to her wrists. Bishop’s path is obvious from Friday: survive the early storm, then get to the back and stay there, which she did twice against a Carmouche who looked like the weight cut had drained her by Round 2 (my least favorite way to watch a title slip away). Ditcheva already stopped Bishop on the feet in 2024, and Bishop still nearly got stopped by one short hook in Round 1 on Friday. If Ditcheva’s hands are actually sound, that’s a bad matchup for the champion. A fighter who has to tell you she’ll fight through broken hands is also telling you she’s had to, and a February date gives those bones about four months to prove they can take another camp of hard sparring. My pick stands, as long as the hands do too.
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