Liz Carmouche is all in on a fight against unbeaten PFL star Dakota Ditcheva.
While some might see Ditcheva as a fight to avoid, Carmouche sees it as an opportunity to further her storied career and keep challenging herself 15 years into her professional MMA journey.
Carmouche (25–8) vs. Ditcheva (15-0) is easily one of the biggest fights the PFL can make. Carmouche, a former Bellator champion, is coming off winning the 2025 PFL women’s flyweight tournament earlier this month, while Ditcheva stands unbeaten and champion of the 2023 and 2024 PFL women’s flyweight tournaments.
“I hope (this fight is made), but it really depends on her health because I know she just had surgery on her hand, and the last thing I want is to have an opponent that has to rush back because there’s demand on it,” Carmouche told MMA Junkie. “I want the best version of her. I know what it’s like to be rushed and pushed back after you’re not ready because you’re healing from something. For me, she’s done so well in winning back to back tournaments. I’ve now competed in back to back tournaments and won the last one. So for both of us, it makes sense to face each other. That’s what the fans want to see, too.”
Carmouche, 41, has basically seen it all in the sport, being a pioneer for women’s MMA. She’s liked what she’s seen from 27-year-old Ditcheva and admits she’s been impressed by her work in the PFL.
“Absolutely, it’s hard not to, right?” Carmouche said. “When you see somebody, and they’re winning, and it’s not like she’s just beating easy opponents. She just fought Sumiko, she’s fought Bishop, like I just fought bishop. She’s fought the biggest name that everybody was anticipating to finish her, and she finished Taila Santos. She’s shown she’s at the top for a reason. To me, that’s the type of competitor I want to face. I want somebody who’s going to be complex, who’s going to challenge me, and force me to show my best version.”
Given how dominant Ditcheva has been in the striking, knocking out 12 opponents out of her 15 wins, many would expect the groundwork to be the appropriate game plan to beat the American Top Team product. Yet, Carmouche sees things differently, and is more than willing to test her striking skills against the decorated striker.
“She’s striking dominant, but we saw it against Bishop that she’s not a chump on the ground,” Carmouche said. “You’re not going to finish her. If anyone is going to be able to that and succeed there, it would’ve been Bishop. Think people anticipate like, ‘Oh, you just have to take it to the ground,’ but I like challenging myself against whatever is somebody strong suit, like, ‘You want to go to the ground? I took Bishop to the ground. That’s fine. We’ll go to the ground. Ok, you’re good at striking? Let’s try stinking.'”
