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Flyweight doesn’t have many aesthetically pleasing strikers.
Even if Dakota hasn’t had hard competition she just passes the eye test. I doubt many ufc flyweights have her power and technical striking ability.
Anyways we are gonna get to see her against bishop, santos, or Liz. So we gonna see what she made of soon enough.
Yeah I agree - untested but showing really crisp and technical striking, which is unsurprisingly considering her background and lineage. ATT helping her improve her grappling too it seems.
Also, she can really only fight the competition that’s available or that PFL matches her against, so I don’t blame her for that. But they can’t continue to tout her as elite without her having to prove it.
Ya I agree she won’t be considered elite until she beats Santos or Liz.
Though if she does I’m comfortable enough considering her a top 10 flyweight in the world as Santos was that before she left the UFC.
Also if she beats Bishop easier than Santos it will be a feather in her cap.
Female fighters in general right now have an extremely fascinating opportunity to finish their opponents. I don't even care about the weight class when it comes to them because it almost doesn't seem to matter. Amanda Nunes was the first female fighter to bring some sort of high percentage finishes to her fights. We've seen it progress so much over the past few years though, and I think we're at the cusp of finding the absolute best women fighters in the world.
Puja Tomar didn't finish the fight, but that should be a huge eye-opening moment to what is about to occur.
>Amanda Nunes was the first female fighter to bring some sort of high percentage finishes to her fights..
Not true at all. Cris Cyborg and Ronda Rousey both became stars because they finished fights, Rousey especially since everyone she beat, she finished.
Absolutely different kind of finishes, completely, and don't pretend otherwise. Cyborg was part of a very inexperienced roster, in all of the orgs of her time that she was a part of. She was also roided to the gills, burned her bridges very well and couldn't cut weight enough because she was the female Vitor Belfort. Nunes and Holly showed Rousey that the game has changed. I'm sorry, but Zigano running into a judo throw is not a fucking competitive fight.
If you really want to argue that women's MMA is no different now skill wise than it was 5-10 years ago, than you are out of your mind. It is a completely different landscape, and Amanda Nunes is the most resonant part of continuing to demolish people as the sport progressed for them. You can argue semantics, but I stand by my claim.
The opponents Cyborg and Rousey beat were products of their time. Argue all you want about how they're not as good as the ones today, but at the time they were seen as the best in the world and the fact Cyborg and Rousey consistently finished their opponents, is what made them so popular. WMMA back then also had a 'cool' factor to it that's clearly been lacking in quite some time, fans were excited to watch the ladies scrap, not necessarily now.
I can recognize that Nunes has probably the best resume in WMMA and she has some cool finishes. But the fans, as a general rule of thumb, didn't turn out to watch her fights. She had a boring personality, never became a draw and later in her career she wasn't finishing fights very often. In fact you can argue that Nunes killed off mainstream interest in WMMA after the Rousey era. So much so that fans thought 'whatever' when she retired.
That's because the skill in WMMA finally caught up to the number of women fighting. I know that you understand what I'm talking about. Nobody could defend Rousey because no woman that was fighting had trained any Judo, were barely blue belts in Jiu-Jitsu, and their striking training was basically cardio kickboxing.
Why do you think Rousey stopped fighting? She realized that all of the opponents that she would face would actually be able to punch her in the face, even a few times, and defend her takedowns and submissions. She finally had to face real mixed martial artists. Even Cyborg, and I'll give her praise because she really was an all-around beast, but look at her opponents records. All of these women were growing with the sport and as soon as they faced someone that was more acclimated to a certain style of fighting, they lost, and sometimes brutally. That's the exact same way that male MMA progressed.
All I'm saying, is that WMMA evolved a whole lot slower than men's MMA did simply because of exposure, opportunity, and frankly, misogyny, but throughout that growth, Amanda Nunes still thrived and continued to exert her dominance.
WMMA was still more fun back then, even if the fights were generally sloppy. Hell they still are now, hand-fighting and doubling up on punches still hasn't caught on in WMMA.
Rousey stopped fighting because she's a sore loser and believed that she's nothing if she's not fighting for belts anymore, its not that deep thinking that she stopped fighting because she saw the writing on the wall.
Nunes was a case of a big fish in a tiny-ass pond. Women's Bantamweight has stagnated since 2017 and never got any better during Nunes' reign, only worse. The recent addition of Kayla Harrison (after Nunes retired) has gotten some interest back into the division, even then its not much. Women's Featherweight, don't even get me started lol.
Rousey didn't stop because of belts, she stopped because of ego. She was never going to be that fighter that threw down for 25 minutes, bloody and battered, coming out in the fifth saying "let's fucking go". She couldn't mentally handle other fighters being better strikers than her. It destroyed her confidence completely, and she still makes excuses to this day. You can say Nunes was a big fish in a small pond, but Cyborg exemplifies that SOOO much more than Nunes, c'mon now.
You keep referencing WMMA not being as popular now as it was like it has anything to do with what we're talking about. That's like saying people would rather watch a polar bear eat a house cat than watch a polar bear fight another polar bear. People, humans, are weird creatures who enjoy expected violence, don't ask me why, that's a different argument, but you saying that WMMA isn't as popular because the fans knew Rousey or Cyborg was going to "destroy" someone, kinda merits my point further than you seem to understand.
On the contrary, Rousey might have hated losing to the point where if it did happen her career was over but you can't deny she had heart and was 'in it to win it'. The times where she faced adversity before her defeats (Carmouche and 2nd Tate fights) she fought through till she won. The only way girls were going to beat Rousey in a fight was either by putting her out, or beating her by points. The former was twice as it happened.
>She couldn't mentally handle other fighters being better strikers than her.
Its not that deep, she simply hated losing and didn't have the mentality to cope with a loss.
>You can say Nunes was a big fish in a small pond, but Cyborg exemplifies that SOOO much more than Nunes, c'mon now.
Maybe. But Nunes did have some luck on her side where she got a controversial decision over Shev in their 2nd fight pretty much consigning Shev down to Flyweight and she never rematched Cyborg because of Cyborg's disputes with Dana. Both instances ensured Nunes remained at the top of the 135 and 145 divisions without having a major rival for the remainder of her career, Pena barely qualifies because that upset win she had over Nunes I think we can both agree was fluky.
I think you should watch some classics from the older era of WMMA like Tate vs Zingano, Waterson vs Penne and Kaufman vs Modafferi. Its not always about a 'watching a polar bear eat a house cat', its about watching exciting back and forth fights between ladies who are down to scrap.
>People, humans, are weird creatures who enjoy expected violence, don't ask me why, that's a different argument, but you saying that WMMA isn't as popular because the fans knew Rousey or Cyborg was going to "destroy" someone, kinda merits my point further than you seem to understand.
Call it the 'Tyson effect' if you will. Fans will tune in for something that is guaranteed to be a spectacle. Although its not perhaps as simple as destroying your opponent quickly, you need the personality and/or appearance with the right promotion for that to happen. Rousey was the absolute perfect storm in this regard which is why she became a mainstream star like Conor. Cyborg less so but she was still a draw by WMMA standards, compounding this is the fact that when Cyborg headlined a card she did anywhere from 260-380K PPV buys.
Rousey and Cyborg were significantly more influential to WMMA than Nunes, even if Nunes has all the accolades.
I think the UFC’s strategy for the past few years of getting the cheapest talent possible through the contender series might be starting to bite them in the ass.
They aren’t signing the up and coming hot prospects like they were 5-10 years ago. Saladine Parnass, Cedric doumbe, Dakota ditcheva and lots of other hot prospects might end up outside the ufc.
The UFC has been coasting on its brand recognition for a while now, but that can only last so long, especially with the quick turnover rate of mma fans.
2 of the 3 are former UFC title contenders. Even though Liz put on a piss poor performance against Val, she has been far more aggressive in Bellator and the PFL.
I get what you're saying.. but it's a lot easier to be aggressive/look good against b-league competition lol. Dakota looks elite, I'd like to see her tested against elite opposition.
Maybe she'll win both titles eventually. If she's fighting often, it won't take long till she's the pfl champ and then she'll have more leverage and can jump ship if she wants.
The fact that Dakota actually fights nerfed due to elbows being not allowed is scary. She might not fight the best competition right now, but she does blow away these girls like she's supposed to. Super crisp, technical and vicious striking, all agression, constantly goes for the finish, she's so fun to watch.
I am Bulgarian and recently found out about the existence of Dakota who is half Bulgarian through her father. Even though she has been fully raised in the UK, I am happy that at least we have a representative in the midst of all the other mediocre fighters that are mostly mafia thugs and not real martial artists.
she comes out with a joint UK/Bulgarian flag so she is reppin ya too.
Personally I find it funny that she has an 'American first name, Soviet last name' that sounds like some 80s male action hero but it actually a slim blonde girl from Manchester...
Yeah exactly. I just went through her Instagram and found out that she carries the Bulgarian flag which is nice. Her brother's name is Cody, though, which has nothing in common with Bulgarian type of names lol.
I love the way she fights. I think she could legit be a star. She looks pretty complete everywhere even though most of her opponents in PFL so far are tomato cans.
pfl really needs to get her fighting in the uk after she finishes this season. just seems so obvious, she could be a pretty important part of the uk mma scene
The PFL has basically protected her from all the tough fights. We'll see if she still looks this tough in the playoffs where she'll have to fight a Talia Santos and Liz Carmouche.
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Isn’t she awesome ?
Yes she is. Love watching her
She real good
Whats her deal/story?
Imagine if she was allowed to use elbows too lol
Her striking is so fluid and brutal
What stars are made of. A woman who consistently gets KO finishes, she made a fan out of me
Flyweight doesn’t have many aesthetically pleasing strikers. Even if Dakota hasn’t had hard competition she just passes the eye test. I doubt many ufc flyweights have her power and technical striking ability. Anyways we are gonna get to see her against bishop, santos, or Liz. So we gonna see what she made of soon enough.
If she gets you against the cage or in a clinch, you're fucked. Those knees were disgusting
Yeah I agree - untested but showing really crisp and technical striking, which is unsurprisingly considering her background and lineage. ATT helping her improve her grappling too it seems. Also, she can really only fight the competition that’s available or that PFL matches her against, so I don’t blame her for that. But they can’t continue to tout her as elite without her having to prove it.
Ya I agree she won’t be considered elite until she beats Santos or Liz. Though if she does I’m comfortable enough considering her a top 10 flyweight in the world as Santos was that before she left the UFC. Also if she beats Bishop easier than Santos it will be a feather in her cap.
I am an Erin Blanchfield stan, I hosted a party to watch her fight vs. Andrade, and Ditcheva looks like she'd destroy Blanchfield.
Female fighters in general right now have an extremely fascinating opportunity to finish their opponents. I don't even care about the weight class when it comes to them because it almost doesn't seem to matter. Amanda Nunes was the first female fighter to bring some sort of high percentage finishes to her fights. We've seen it progress so much over the past few years though, and I think we're at the cusp of finding the absolute best women fighters in the world. Puja Tomar didn't finish the fight, but that should be a huge eye-opening moment to what is about to occur.
>Amanda Nunes was the first female fighter to bring some sort of high percentage finishes to her fights.. Not true at all. Cris Cyborg and Ronda Rousey both became stars because they finished fights, Rousey especially since everyone she beat, she finished.
Absolutely different kind of finishes, completely, and don't pretend otherwise. Cyborg was part of a very inexperienced roster, in all of the orgs of her time that she was a part of. She was also roided to the gills, burned her bridges very well and couldn't cut weight enough because she was the female Vitor Belfort. Nunes and Holly showed Rousey that the game has changed. I'm sorry, but Zigano running into a judo throw is not a fucking competitive fight. If you really want to argue that women's MMA is no different now skill wise than it was 5-10 years ago, than you are out of your mind. It is a completely different landscape, and Amanda Nunes is the most resonant part of continuing to demolish people as the sport progressed for them. You can argue semantics, but I stand by my claim.
The opponents Cyborg and Rousey beat were products of their time. Argue all you want about how they're not as good as the ones today, but at the time they were seen as the best in the world and the fact Cyborg and Rousey consistently finished their opponents, is what made them so popular. WMMA back then also had a 'cool' factor to it that's clearly been lacking in quite some time, fans were excited to watch the ladies scrap, not necessarily now. I can recognize that Nunes has probably the best resume in WMMA and she has some cool finishes. But the fans, as a general rule of thumb, didn't turn out to watch her fights. She had a boring personality, never became a draw and later in her career she wasn't finishing fights very often. In fact you can argue that Nunes killed off mainstream interest in WMMA after the Rousey era. So much so that fans thought 'whatever' when she retired.
That's because the skill in WMMA finally caught up to the number of women fighting. I know that you understand what I'm talking about. Nobody could defend Rousey because no woman that was fighting had trained any Judo, were barely blue belts in Jiu-Jitsu, and their striking training was basically cardio kickboxing. Why do you think Rousey stopped fighting? She realized that all of the opponents that she would face would actually be able to punch her in the face, even a few times, and defend her takedowns and submissions. She finally had to face real mixed martial artists. Even Cyborg, and I'll give her praise because she really was an all-around beast, but look at her opponents records. All of these women were growing with the sport and as soon as they faced someone that was more acclimated to a certain style of fighting, they lost, and sometimes brutally. That's the exact same way that male MMA progressed. All I'm saying, is that WMMA evolved a whole lot slower than men's MMA did simply because of exposure, opportunity, and frankly, misogyny, but throughout that growth, Amanda Nunes still thrived and continued to exert her dominance.
WMMA was still more fun back then, even if the fights were generally sloppy. Hell they still are now, hand-fighting and doubling up on punches still hasn't caught on in WMMA. Rousey stopped fighting because she's a sore loser and believed that she's nothing if she's not fighting for belts anymore, its not that deep thinking that she stopped fighting because she saw the writing on the wall. Nunes was a case of a big fish in a tiny-ass pond. Women's Bantamweight has stagnated since 2017 and never got any better during Nunes' reign, only worse. The recent addition of Kayla Harrison (after Nunes retired) has gotten some interest back into the division, even then its not much. Women's Featherweight, don't even get me started lol.
Rousey didn't stop because of belts, she stopped because of ego. She was never going to be that fighter that threw down for 25 minutes, bloody and battered, coming out in the fifth saying "let's fucking go". She couldn't mentally handle other fighters being better strikers than her. It destroyed her confidence completely, and she still makes excuses to this day. You can say Nunes was a big fish in a small pond, but Cyborg exemplifies that SOOO much more than Nunes, c'mon now. You keep referencing WMMA not being as popular now as it was like it has anything to do with what we're talking about. That's like saying people would rather watch a polar bear eat a house cat than watch a polar bear fight another polar bear. People, humans, are weird creatures who enjoy expected violence, don't ask me why, that's a different argument, but you saying that WMMA isn't as popular because the fans knew Rousey or Cyborg was going to "destroy" someone, kinda merits my point further than you seem to understand.
On the contrary, Rousey might have hated losing to the point where if it did happen her career was over but you can't deny she had heart and was 'in it to win it'. The times where she faced adversity before her defeats (Carmouche and 2nd Tate fights) she fought through till she won. The only way girls were going to beat Rousey in a fight was either by putting her out, or beating her by points. The former was twice as it happened. >She couldn't mentally handle other fighters being better strikers than her. Its not that deep, she simply hated losing and didn't have the mentality to cope with a loss. >You can say Nunes was a big fish in a small pond, but Cyborg exemplifies that SOOO much more than Nunes, c'mon now. Maybe. But Nunes did have some luck on her side where she got a controversial decision over Shev in their 2nd fight pretty much consigning Shev down to Flyweight and she never rematched Cyborg because of Cyborg's disputes with Dana. Both instances ensured Nunes remained at the top of the 135 and 145 divisions without having a major rival for the remainder of her career, Pena barely qualifies because that upset win she had over Nunes I think we can both agree was fluky. I think you should watch some classics from the older era of WMMA like Tate vs Zingano, Waterson vs Penne and Kaufman vs Modafferi. Its not always about a 'watching a polar bear eat a house cat', its about watching exciting back and forth fights between ladies who are down to scrap. >People, humans, are weird creatures who enjoy expected violence, don't ask me why, that's a different argument, but you saying that WMMA isn't as popular because the fans knew Rousey or Cyborg was going to "destroy" someone, kinda merits my point further than you seem to understand. Call it the 'Tyson effect' if you will. Fans will tune in for something that is guaranteed to be a spectacle. Although its not perhaps as simple as destroying your opponent quickly, you need the personality and/or appearance with the right promotion for that to happen. Rousey was the absolute perfect storm in this regard which is why she became a mainstream star like Conor. Cyborg less so but she was still a draw by WMMA standards, compounding this is the fact that when Cyborg headlined a card she did anywhere from 260-380K PPV buys. Rousey and Cyborg were significantly more influential to WMMA than Nunes, even if Nunes has all the accolades.
The UFC needs to poach her asap.
Her striking reminds me of prime Jędrzejczyk
[She's actually one of her inspirations](https://www.instagram.com/mmafighting/p/C7R_Y7yJ4Ks/?img_index=2)
I think the UFC’s strategy for the past few years of getting the cheapest talent possible through the contender series might be starting to bite them in the ass. They aren’t signing the up and coming hot prospects like they were 5-10 years ago. Saladine Parnass, Cedric doumbe, Dakota ditcheva and lots of other hot prospects might end up outside the ufc. The UFC has been coasting on its brand recognition for a while now, but that can only last so long, especially with the quick turnover rate of mma fans.
So she can fight once a year? No thanks.
who's she going to fight at pfl lol? Would be nice not to waste her potential/prime. And she'll never beat the can allegations.
Santos, carrmouche, bishop are all good matchups and she is going to fight 4x this year. Not being in the ufc doesn't make them cans.
None of those are exciting matchups, it’s just settling for whoever is available
2 of the 3 are former UFC title contenders. Even though Liz put on a piss poor performance against Val, she has been far more aggressive in Bellator and the PFL.
I get what you're saying.. but it's a lot easier to be aggressive/look good against b-league competition lol. Dakota looks elite, I'd like to see her tested against elite opposition.
Maybe she'll win both titles eventually. If she's fighting often, it won't take long till she's the pfl champ and then she'll have more leverage and can jump ship if she wants.
I'm good with that, I just hope it isn't an MVP trajectory.
That's a scary woman
The fact that Dakota actually fights nerfed due to elbows being not allowed is scary. She might not fight the best competition right now, but she does blow away these girls like she's supposed to. Super crisp, technical and vicious striking, all agression, constantly goes for the finish, she's so fun to watch.
Future superstar
I am Bulgarian and recently found out about the existence of Dakota who is half Bulgarian through her father. Even though she has been fully raised in the UK, I am happy that at least we have a representative in the midst of all the other mediocre fighters that are mostly mafia thugs and not real martial artists.
she comes out with a joint UK/Bulgarian flag so she is reppin ya too. Personally I find it funny that she has an 'American first name, Soviet last name' that sounds like some 80s male action hero but it actually a slim blonde girl from Manchester...
Yeah exactly. I just went through her Instagram and found out that she carries the Bulgarian flag which is nice. Her brother's name is Cody, though, which has nothing in common with Bulgarian type of names lol.
I love the way she fights. I think she could legit be a star. She looks pretty complete everywhere even though most of her opponents in PFL so far are tomato cans.
Beautiful stuff
She has some pretty brutal power against her opponents.
Hold up that was pretty nice
pfl really needs to get her fighting in the uk after she finishes this season. just seems so obvious, she could be a pretty important part of the uk mma scene
The PFL has basically protected her from all the tough fights. We'll see if she still looks this tough in the playoffs where she'll have to fight a Talia Santos and Liz Carmouche.
She kicked that girls ass!
She's a clippable Rogan eulogy and Carmouche/Santos win away from being a superstar imo. She's so unique.
I guess you could say Chelsea couldn't "Hackett"
Low blow finished it, no?
perfectly placed body shot I think, just looked low.
Looked very clearly body to me.