Dakota Ditcheva will step away from competition while doctors assess two broken hands she suffered in her unanimous decision victory over Denise Kielholtz at PFL New York. The 28-year-old Briton said the damage dates back to a previous injury and that she felt a new fracture early in the second round, but concealed the problem until after the fight.
Ditcheva returned to the cage for the first time in just over a year and secured a comfortable win, extending her unbeaten start to 16 fights. She had not fought since July 2025 after breaking her left hand, and said the opposite hand later developed a fracture. She confirmed one of the injuries stemmed from her decision not to undergo surgery last year, and the other is a "small break" that failed to hold up.
Speaking on YouTube, Ditcheva described the moment she realised she was hurt, saying, "I broke my hands in the fight. I could feel it from the second I started the second round." She added, "I didn't tell my corner. I didn't tell anybody. I didn't show it this time, and I didn't actually tell anybody until I got out of the cage." She said she is "back in splints until my surgeon has decided what the next steps are going forward, which will be in the next few days."
The injuries are a fresh setback for one of PFL's leading stars. Ditcheva won the organisation's flyweight tournament in 2024, becoming the first British woman to claim a major MMA world championship and securing a $1m (£787,000) prize. Despite the new damage, she insisted her career is not over and vowed to return sooner than after her previous lay-off.
"The good thing is I have no new breaks. It's just the hand that wasn't operated on that I broke at the end of last year," Ditcheva said, adding, "I was told that if I didn't go ahead with surgery at that time, there was a possibility it could break again. I took the risk in not doing the surgery because I was hoping it would hold strong, and it didn't. So therefore I'm paying the price for it now and I will be out for a little bit."
She closed by admitting the emotional toll, saying, "I have honestly cried non-stop the last week," and by promising a comeback, "I will be back. This is not going to take me out. My career is not done. Although it felt like that once again, I will be back. I'm hopefully going to be back quicker than I was last time." For now, the timetable rests with her surgeon's assessment in the coming days.
