3 hours Ago By Donagh Corby
Ahead of their big fight in Riyadh, there has been no love lost between the PFL’s two prime flyweights. There’s $1million on the line for the winner, but perhaps more importantly to Dakota Ditcheva and Taila Santos , a world title belt after a gruelling four-fight run. The PFL season started in April, meaning that they will have each fought four times inside just eight months by the end of the year.
For context, Santos’ most active period in the UFC saw her compete three times in ten months on route to a world title showdown with Valentina Shevchenko . And while this is Ditcheva’s biggest challenge to date, there are a lot of people backing her to land yet another stoppage. Who is Francis Ngannou? Inside the former UFC heavyweight champion’s journey from poverty to combat sports superstardom Taila Santos believes Dakota Ditcheva is overhyped ahead of grudge fight British star Ditcheva has been one of the most exciting prospects to emerge in the PFL, winning all but one of her bouts within a round since signing in 2022.
Prior to that, she had been to the scorecards just once. Her incredible run of form this season has seen her make it to the finals without ever going past four minutes, much less a full round. But Santos reckons that she has yet to be legitimately tested, and feels Ditcheva hasn’t earned the hype she’s receiving from the promotion.
“I have zero problems with her as a person or an athlete,” Santos told Bloody Elbow in an exclusive chat. “It’s not even her fault, the reason why I keep talking about her is that there’s so much promotion on the PFL side that leads the media to continue to hype her up. “That’s not her fault, she’s right in accepting the role and riding the wave because not everybody gets that.
But when the day comes, and the cage door locks with me, that’s a different thing. There’s a little too much hype for her at the stage she’s at in her career. “It might end up being detrimental to her in some respects, but we’ll see.
We’re just here to compete on November 29...
At the end of the day, I think the biggest point is that what they’re hyping on her is not necessarily the truth. “She’s obviously a talented girl with a big future, but they are giving her way too much hype ahead of time. She has a lot of potential but she has not yet shown all of that, she’s probably not the final version of herself, and PFL might be doing her a disservice by pushing her so hard.
” Dakota Ditcheva insists Taila Santos fight isn’t personal despite heated feud Santos has been vocal with her trash talking in the lead-up to the $1million fight, declaring that her rival isn’t worth what the promotion are giving her. And while there is needle between the pair, Ditcheva insists the rivalry is not becoming personal. “I don’t dislike her,” Ditcheva explained in an exclusive interview with Bloody Elbow.
“I don’t dislike her at all, Jena [Bishop, her last opponent] was more annoying than Taila, she’s just trying to be funny, she was the same with Jena. “She took Jena’s glasses and then with me she did this lipstick thing. She’s just trying to do her thing and I don’t dislike her at all.
I honestly don’t dislike anybody in the tournament, I don’t really care about them. “What any of them say just goes straight out of my head, I’m not really that bothered about it. It’s not personal for me, whether you talk bad about me or not I’m going to do the same thing to you so it doesn’t really matter.
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