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Chicago \u2014 PFL star Dakota Ditcheva and ex-Bellator champ\/UFC title challenger Liz Carmouche have long been circling one another.<\/p>\n
However, following Friday\u2019s PFL Chicago, where Jena Bishop defeated Carmouche via decision to claim the promotion\u2019s inaugural women\u2019s flyweight championship, Ditcheva feels it\u2019s no longer the fight to make.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t need the Liz fight. I know a lot of fans want to see it, but it\u2019s not a fight that I\u2019m like, my career is dependent on. I want to go to a level that Liz hasn\u2019t been able to go to,\u201d Ditcheva (16-0) said backstage at the WinTrust Arena in Chicago, speaking with media outlets including Cageside Press.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow she [Carmouche] likes to talk down and say like I\u2019m running away from her and all this kind of stuff. I feel like there\u2019s a lot more to it than just me and Liz fighting. You\u2019ve got to be able to sell it, and I think they can sell Jena better than they can sell Liz.\u201d<\/p>\n
No doubt that\u2019s true now, thanks to Bishop\u2019s big win. Yet even before that, the PFL avoided booking the pair, and Carmouche ran with the narrative that Ditcheva was scared of her.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like she needs to sit back a little bit, think about what she\u2019s saying. I am not scared to fight Liz. That is one thing that I\u2019m not scared of. I\u2019m not scared to fight anybody,\u201d Ditcheva exclaimed. \u201cMaybe it didn\u2019t get away as well, so that\u2019s the other side of it. Maybe we will fight. But at the same time, I don\u2019t need that fight. I\u2019m sick of hearing everybody go like \u2018oh it\u2019s the fight to make.\u2019 She just lost to Jena. It\u2019s not the fight to make anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
Next up for the unbeaten English star will be a title fight against Jena Bishop. The pair faced off in the cage on Friday to set the rematch up. As to timing, Ditcheva has been given the all clear to train in boxing again, after breaking both hands in her last fight. That should put her on track to return sometime early in 2027. \u201cFebruary, March next year I hope,\u201d she suggested.<\/p>\n
Of course, with Bishop being the newly crowned and inaugural PFL women\u2019s flyweight champion, \u201cI guess the balls in her court, but I\u2019m still the golden girl. So if they want me back in the cage, then she\u2019s going to have to come up with some strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked about how a second fight between herself and Jena Bishop would go, Ditcheva replied by saying \u201cProbably the same as last time. She\u2019s definitely improved, I\u2019m not taking anything away from her tonight. She took some heavy shots, so she can definitely obviously take a good bit of damage. But yeah, I feel like I\u2019m different from Liz for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Later, she admitted that \u201cI wasn\u2019t like crazy impressed with the level, but not taking anything away from her performance tonight. I want to let her have her moment, but I wasn\u2019t crazy impressed with \u2018wow this is going to be crazy hard.\u2019 But I do think she\u2019s improved since the last time I fought her.\u201d<\/p>\n