Preview: PFL 7 2024 | Heavyweight, Women’s Flyweight Playoffs

Women’s Flyweight Semifinal

Dakota Ditcheva (12-0, 7-0 PFL) Jena Bishop (7-1, 1-1 PFL)

No fighter—man or woman—has been more impressive this season than Ditcheva. The Manchester-born monster has annihilated everyone put in front of her, and at 26, her stock still has so much room to grow. Her striking is heads and shoulders above everyone in the women’s flyweight division, and she proved that with brutal back-to-back first-round finishes. Ditcheva comes into the playoffs as the No. 1 seed after quickly dispatching Lisa Mauldin in April and then following up the performance with another TKO over Chelsea Hackett two months later. In both of these performances, Ditcheva set up her finish with gut-wrenching bodywork, and she’ll be looking to do it again. The only question about the young prospect is what will she do against elite-level grappling. Bishop will be the perfect person to administer that test. The 38-year-old Bishop may not have a ton of MMA experience, but the former International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation world champion is as dangerous as they come on the ground. Bishop showed she could hang with the best after submitting Hackett in the first round of the competition and then dropping a close split decision to Talia Santos in June. Bishop’s striking is nothing to fret over, but she nearly came back from down two rounds and stunned with Santos with a face crank late. Whoever can play this fight to their strength will have the advantage. Ditcheva has one submission win on her ledger, and she’s never faced a grappler the level of Bishop. However, Bishop has never seen hands like Ditcheva’s. Bishop hasn’t quite found a way to make her game well-rounded, and that could ultimately be her downfall. If she can’t take this fight to the ground in a hurry, she’ll be at risk of becoming Ditcheva’s eighth straight stoppage victim.

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Goltsov vs. Johnson
Ditcheva vs. Bishop
Popov vs. Vassell
Santos vs. Carmouche
The Prelims