Dakota Ditcheva discusses battle with mental health after injuries ahead of PFL New York return

Breaking both hands in five months might leave your average fighter out of the game forever.

But not Dakota Ditcheva, who has had to overcome two major injury setbacks ahead of her return to the cage at PFL New York this week.

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The 28-year-old, who became a millionaire in 2024 by winning the PFL women’s flyweight tournament, makes her long-awaited MMA comeback on Friday.

Ditcheva faces Dutch fighter Denise Kielholtz in the co-main event of the card on Long Island, headlined by Usman Nurmagomedov’s lightweight title defence against Archie Colgan.

Last time out, ‘Dangerous’ extended her professional record to 15-0 by claiming a unanimous decision over Sumiko Inaba at the PFL’s first event in Africa — despite suffering a broken left hand during the contest.

After months of recovery, she was scheduled to fight Kielholtz at PFL Dubai in February, but another broken hand — the right one — sustained while training in Thailand forced her to pull out.

‘I felt like my whole world ended’

“It’s been tough, don’t get me wrong,” Ditcheva explained, recalling her road to recovery.

“Even like last year, I fought once. It’s not known for me to be out of competition this long.

“I’m used to fighting three, four times a year. Even in Thai boxing, I was fighting all the time. So it was tough.

“There were a lot of low moments, a lot of lessons learned. I feel as time went on and I had more and more time out, I learned how to deal with it more, especially after the first big injury that I had.

“I really went into like a rut where I was just very depressed. I wasn’t sure what direction I was going.

“I felt like my whole world kind of ended. So that was definitely tough. But I feel like I got used to it.

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“I learned how to keep busy, how to make sure that I put my time into other things.

“I think the first time I sat in a rut and just wanted to train all the time, whereas the second time I was like, ‘Right, let’s work on all this stuff outside of fighting and build for the future.’

“Maybe this time has been taken away from me because I need to put the time into other things.

“And that’s what I did. I just took it as a time to work on more business stuff.”

The road back

Since her second hand injury, Ditcheva — who has sought advice from fellow PFL star Paul Hughes, who also suffered similar injuries early in his career — has expanded her portfolio outside the cage.

She’s announced a new partnership with water brand Vann Norway and even starred in a film in Bulgaria, where her father is from, that is set to be released next year.

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Ditcheva said the entire process has taught her to ‘slow down a little bit’ — but she’s now back training exactly how she was before.

“I learned that when I came back after being injured for the first time, I didn’t do everything right. I rushed,” Ditcheva added.

“Maybe I wanted to come back too soon, was too eager to get going again. And this time I really slowed things down.

“I made sure that my whole body was healthy. I took my time with it. I didn’t kind of rush to get back to training, which is something that I tend to do quite often.

“I didn’t book a fight until I was pretty much 100 per cent there. And then I was like, ‘Right, PFL, I’m ready to go now.’”

Ditcheva is a big favourite heading into her co-main event on Friday, but added that she’s not underestimating anything about Kielholtz, who is 9-5 in her career and on a three-fight winning streak.

‘Dangerous’ has five fights left on her current PFL contract, with the promotion reportedly having to pay upwards of $1million per fight to prevent a switch to the UFC.

She plans to make a statement in New York and be as active as she can while injury-free.