The women's flyweight division is arguably the PFL's deepest weight class. Bellator champion Liz Carmouche opted to compete in the PFL's tournament season after the company's acquisition, further deepening the roster. Carmouche has won eight in a row and 10 of her last 11. Ex-UFC title contender Taila Santos has moved to the PFL and is competing in its tournament.
Santos will face 7-0 Jena Bishop on Thursday at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Conn., at PFL 4, and Carmouche will face the 13-2-1 Kana Watanabe.
But there is another name to watch, one who is not only so far unbeaten but who wins almost exclusively in the first round. Dakota Ditcheva faces Chelsea Hackett on Thursday, looking to keep not only her perfect 11-0 record intact, but also her reputation as one of the division's best finishers. Ditcheva has finished 10 of her 11 professional MMA fights and ended eight of them in the first round.
It's part of who she is. Her mother, Lisa Howarth, was a world kickboxing champion with an aggressive style and Ditcheva has naturally followed suit.
"Definitely, my style is very much like my mum's," Ditcheva said. "We both started in Thai boxing, but even though we both started off in that discipline, we don't really have that traditional Thai boxing style. It's very slow and not really very bouncy. We've got more of like a European style that's kind of kickboxing on your toes that's quite quick and things like that.
"If you watched my Mom fight and then put mine on next to it, you'd definitely see a lot of similarities. I'm like a clone of my Mom, but it's not like she said, 'You need to fight like I did.' She was never like that. It's just my style came that way with her teaching me my whole career. I've kind of picked up a lot of the things she does."
Ditcheva is by far the biggest favorite on the card Thursday. At DraftKings sports book, Ditcheva is -1450, with Hackett at +850. She should win and win big if the oddsmakers are right, but with those expectations comes pressure. And having a mother who was her coach and a high-level athlete means there's plenty of time to pick apart her game.
She knows that when he leaves the cage on Thursday, she's going to hear from Mom about all the things that didn't go right.
"She's proud of me and she obviously knows I'll do well and will fight well, but she's the one parent who can out pick out all the little things that maybe weren't exactly to her liking," Ditcheva said. "She'll see changes I should make and she'll point them out to me. I can really respect that. That's her coach side and separate the coach from the proud parent.
"We laugh about it a lot, but it was the same thing with my brother [Cody]. He used to fight Thai boxing and they were proud of him, but as soon as he got out of the ring, they were like, 'You need to work on this, this and this.' Obviously, it's hard separating the two but it's not really made things difficult for me."
Ditcheva needs the win and could use the finish to keep her at the top of the points race. Hackett enters the bout having lost two of her last three and was submitted by Bishop in the first round at PFL 1 in San Antonio on April 4.
It could be hard for some elite athletes to get motivated when taking on a lesser opponent, but Ditcheva isn't allowing herself to be caught unaware.
"If I did [look past her], it would not be smart and it would potentially ruin everything I've been working for," she said. "Look, Chelsea got caught early in a good submission. You can get caught; you know how this sport is. Maybe if that hadn't happened, she'd have had a good, full hard fight with Jena Bishop. You have to think that her motivation is high and she might be absolutely on fire in the gym now and having been working on some new things with her coaches.
"So I just have to go in and be ready for the best Chelsea Hackett there's been, and fight my fight the way I know how. If I do that, I will be alright."
Professional Fighters League
Dakota Ditcheva is 11-0 with 10 finishes, including eight in the first round.