Dakota Ditcheva: PFL champion celebrates historic victory with McDonald's after golden year
2024-12-30
Category: sports

The first thing Dakota Ditcheva bought after her historic title win last month was a McDonald's for her friends and family.The 26-year-old's victory over Taila Santos - where she won the PFL flyweight belt to become the first British woman to claim a major MMA world championship - came with a $1m (Â£787,000) prize.Ditcheva ordered chicken nuggets, chips and a Coke but didn't get to enjoy all of her celebratory meal."I actually ended up giving the chicken nuggets to my little brother because he forgot to put an order in. So I ended up with just chips and a Coke, but it was still nice, anyway," says Ditcheva with a laugh.As the footage of her second-round knockout spread across social media, congratulations poured in from some of the biggest names in MMA.Current and former champions Amanda Nunes, Cris Cyborg, Joanna Jedrzejczyk and Kayla Harrison paid tribute, but the message which meant the most to Ditcheva came from a more unlikely source.It came from ex-Manchester City striker Paul Dickov."He's the one that sticks out because we've been City fans our whole life, it's a surreal moment," she says."Even my friend said: 'Oh my God, Paul Dickov messaged you, that's my City legend!'"Ditcheva celebrated by exploring Riyadh with her family, before flying to Florida, where she visited Disneyland with her friends.From ordering fast food to living and breathing Manchester City and spending time with loved ones - what's important to her is maintaining a sense of normality."That's how I always want it to be. I don't want my life to change at all," says Ditcheva."Just because I've won a world title doesn't make me any better than anyone else. I might have a million in the bank but take that million off me, and I'm going to be the same person."So I want to make sure that I stay like that and that's what I always wanted."
Ditcheva splits her time between her homes in Manchester and Florida, where she owns an apartment to train nearby at American Top Team (ATT)."I'd say Florida is my first home now because I've been here more than I am in the UK. But if I say that to my mum, she'll kill me. So yeah, Florida's my second home," she says.The influence Ditcheva's mum has had on her career - which has yielded a remarkable 13 stoppages in 14 fights - can't be understated.Lisa Howarth is a former kickboxing world champion and presented Ditcheva with the title following her win over Santos."That's probably one thing that I haven't got my head around yet - my mum handed me the belt, from one world champ to another, from a mother to a daughter," said Ditcheva.
Since moving to ATT in 2022, Ditcheva credits coach Conan Silveira with having the biggest impact on her development, because he mirrors her mum in emphasising the importance of the mind.For weeks leading up to the bout, she manifested victory by creating a mood board and pinning it above her bed.She printed off photos of her holding a replica title and a $1m cheque, as well as writing down what she would spend her prize money on."My mum's always getting me to visualise things. I feel that's probably why I was so confident and so calm going into the fight, because I genuinely believed from deep down that I'd already won it," said Ditcheva."Having moved away from my mum and not having her there 100% all the time, it's crazy that I also found that in Conan."
In the build-up to Ditcheva's fight with Santos, it wasn't widely reported that she had the chance to become her country's first female MMA world champion in a major promotion like the UFC, PFL or Bellator.She says there is still a lot of work to do in growing MMA in the UK, and wants promotions to host more events in the country to help build it.One of her priorities for 2025 is to bring the PFL to Manchester."I want us to build that fanbase here, which I don't feel like we're doing very well at the moment," she adds.One of the challenges Ditcheva faced during her formative years as a mixed martial artist was the lack of female partners to train with.She says it can be tough for young girls in a male-dominated sport, but she wants to use her platform as a champion to urge them to embrace training with males."When you go in the gym and it's full of guys, don't worry about it, we can all train with guys," said Ditcheva."It's very intimidating, but I've had that my whole career, and you're going to get so much better from it."Also make sure you're enjoying training, that's what I want to say to the young ones. You always get better when you enjoy something."