Manchester fighter Dakota Ditcheva says she is “gutted” not to have any fight on the horizon in the PFL.
Ditcheva, 26, won the PFL’s 2024 flyweight world title, but the PFL have since made sweeping changes to their events including downgrading the tournament status.
Ditcheva will compete on the newly created ‘PFL Champions Series’ in 2025 and can only watch from afar as the PFL’s other flyweights begin competing in the tournament this month.
“I’m gutted that I haven’t had anything just yet,” Ditcheva told MMA Junkie., external
“I’m just like: Get me anything. Literally I get it’s hard for PFL.
“They’ve put all the girls in the tournament. Now they have to find someone that’s going to give me a good competition.”
Ditcheva has been told by the PFL she will likely fight at the end of the year against the tournament winner, having last fought in November.
“What if the champion doesn’t end up coming out of the fight clean? What if they’re injured?” Ditcheva said.
“Someone who has fought three times, do they want to fight me at the end of the year?
“They might say, ‘sorry, I’m injured, or I don’t want to fight this year, I’ll do it in January’. That’s a whole year out for me. It’s testing for sure, but something will come.”
Ditcheva is not the only PFL star to speak out about the scheduling, with several fighters demanding the securing of their release from the MMA promotion including Patricio Pitbull who subsequently signed for the UFC.
Former Bellator middleweight champion Johnny Eblen posted on social media in February that he hadn’t “heard a peep” about any fight.
Briton Fabian Edwards, who lost to Eblen in his last outing in October, will fight in the first round of middleweight tournament on Friday and appealed to the PFL to get their best fighters booked.
“To see all those guys on the sidelines for a year or over a year, it’s craziness. I just hope they can sort out what they need to sort out,” Edwards said.
“I hope they fight all the guys soon. This is how we make our living. This is what we sacrifice everything for. Hopefully, they sort everything out.”
