Dakota Ditcheva blasts into PFL Playoffs with first-round finish at PFL 4

England’s “Dangerous” Dakota Ditcheva surged into the PFL Playoffs as the top seed as the PFL Europe womens’ flyweight champion added another impressive finish to her resume at PFL 4 in Uncasville, Connecticut.

Ditcheva took on Australia’s Chelsea Hackett in the co-main event at the Mohegan Sun Arena and, after some significant hype from the promotion leading into the event, delivered the goods with a spectacular display of striking to dismantle Hackett – herself a former Muay Thai champion – inside one round.

Ditcheva quickly established her superior striking early in the contest as she stung Hackett with some sharp, heavy shots, and dropped the Aussie with a cracking punch that had the crowd on their feet.

Hackett did well to survive and, with the fight back on the feet, managed to gain some degree of respite after forcing Ditcheva against the fence, using double underhooks to control the English contender’s positioning.

But Ditcheva never looked unruffled as she calmly worked space for herself to land some punishing knees to the body that eventually helped her gain separation. And, with the fight back in the open again, the Mancunian was able to let her strikes flow once again.

Her power punches and long-range kicks – including a particularly effective high front kick to the face – quickly pushed Hackett back once again and, with her opponent trapped against the fence, Ditcheva loaded up for her finishing sequence, as she punished Hackett with knees and punches, with a left to the body finally breaking Hackett’s resistance and sending her to the canvas.

The stoppage was timed at 3:22 of the opening round, and ensured that Ditcheva finished the night as the top seed in the women’s flyweight playoffs.

Joining her in the final four later this year are American Bellator champion Liz Carmouche, Brazilian former UFC contender Taila Santos and American contender Jena Bishop.

Carmouche claimed the night’s other “wow” moment in the women’s flyweight division as she battled Kana Watanabe in their crucial regular season clash.

Watanabe was ahead two rounds to zero on all three scorecards heading into the final round, but the Bellator champ, who made history as the first female fighter to ever set foot inside the UFC Octagon, still had one final trick up her sleeve.

With the seconds counting down in the final round, and with Watanabe raining down strikes from inside Carmouche’s guard, “Girl-Rilla” threw up her legs and locked up an armbar to force a dramatic late tap from the Japanese contender with just eight seconds of the bout remaining.

Had Carmouche not completed that submission, she would have been eliminated from the competition. Instead, she finds herself one win away from the finals, and two wins away from the season championship, and the $1 million prize.

Earlier in the night, Santos and Bishop faced off in a battle of contenders, with Santos edging a tight split-decision verdict. However, the closeness of their matchup ensured that both women progressed to the PFL Playoffs, with Santos set to face Carmouche in one semi-final, while Bishop takes on top seed Ditcheva in the other.

The night also saw men’s heavyweights in action, as England’s “Big Swarm” Linton Vassell claimed bragging rights in his fighting trilogy with former Bellator interim heavyweight champion Valentin Moldavsky in the night’s main event.

Vassell recovered from a crushing knee to the groin in the opening round to defeat Moldavsky via split decision after three tightly-contested rounds. Unfortunately, despite edging the bout 29-28, 28-29, 29-28, it wasn’t enough to earn Vassell a spot in the heavyweight playoffs, with Moldavsky still progressing to the final four on the strength of his first-round finish of former champion Ante Delija in his first regular-season bout.

Joining Moldavaky in the heavyweight playoffs are teammate Denis Goltsov, who finished Thiago Santos in the first round, and Oleg Popov, who dominated Davion Franklin en route to a shutout decision victory. Also joining them in the final four is former Bellator title challenger Tim Johnson, whose first-round TKO of Danilo Marques earned him a spot in the playoffs.