RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 1 sourcesNASHVILLE, TN - AUGUST 02: Dakota Ditcheva celebrates after defeating Jena Bishop during the PFL 2024 Playoffs at the Municipal Auditorium on August 2, 2024 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Cooper Neill/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Dakota Ditcheva remains undefeated, but some of the luster may have fallen off her.
On Saturday night, Ditcheva returned to the cage for the first time in over a year, taking on Denise Kielholtz in the co-main event of PFL New York at UBS Arena in Belmont Park, New York. Considered one of the faces of the PFL, Ditcheva was a massive betting favorite over Kielholtz and expected to put on a statement performance. But while Ditcheva was dominant, “Dangerous” didn’t dazzle in her return to the cage.
Things got off to a slow start between the two strikers, as Ditcheva struggled to generate big offense against the defensively sound Kielholtz. Business picked up in the second round as Ditcheva was able to hurt Kielholtz a few times and really start opening up her offense on the much smaller woman. Things dropped off in the third round, though, as Kielholtz was simply too durable and too defensively sound to get stopped by Ditcheva’s one-shot offense.
In the end, Ditcheva took a dominant decision, sweeping the scorecards, but it wasn’t the finish she was hoping for, and, in a shocking turn of events, the PFL even denied her a post-fight speech, moving straight to the main event matchup between Usman Nurmagomedov and Archie Colgan.
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