Dakota Ditcheva has no intention of seeing her hype train derail when she faces Jena Bishop in the 2024 PFL Champion Playoffs.
The unbeaten prospect heads into her first PFL Playoff against Bishop on Friday August 2 at the Nashville Municipal Auditorium, Tennessee in a co-main event bout that will decide one of the two Female Flyweight finalists for the 2024 PFL Season.
In previous camps, Ditcheva has spent weeks at a time training at American Top Team in Florida but ahead of the 2024 championships, ‘Dangerous’ made the monumental decision to move to the States full time in order to prepare herself in the best way possible. Speaking to MMAJunkie, the 26-year-old discussed her new living arrangement and being away from her family. She said:
“(I am) Just completely locked in this year. Like I live alone now in Florida. Obviously all my family are in the UK and I'm just like back and forth from the gym all the time. I don't really, I mean I socialize, I've got friends in the gym and stuff, which I'm lucky to have, but my whole life is just dedicated to the sport.
“People do say it's a selfish sport and it really is sometimes, being away from my family, like my nana is a massive part of my life back home. She's 89 years old and I'm halfway across the world from her, so sacrifices like that for me just motivate me to get the job done, stay locked in and get back home to her and make a proud.
“So that's just the way I am. I'm dedicating everything to this tournament. Before I left the UK, I said I won't be going home until I've won, I won't be returning to the UK until this tournament is done, and that's kind of what's been happening. I've been straight back to training after I've been to my fight and I've not been going home and that's just what I want to do until the job's finished.”
Bishop enters the contest on the back of her first loss as a professional in the second week of the 2024 Regular Season to Talia Santos. The American will want to bounce back to winning ways in emphatic style and Ditcheva is well aware of this and knows it is something she will need to be conscious off.
“I have to take that into consideration. You know, she's going to be hungry to come back. She almost was out the tournament. You know, she's still made it, fourth seed, so she's going to be hungry, to make that final. She's not going to want to make the same mistake.
I think, obviously, she's had a few things to say about me before, in the tournament, like who I've been matched against and things like that. So I'm sure she'll be happy to be facing me and she'll be coming to try and stop my hype train, but I don't know whether she'll be the person to do it.”
You can watch the full interview below:
