Dakota Ditcheva: Valentina Shevchenko “Plays it Safe” Too Much But is Still the GOAT”
Dakota Ditcheva doesn’t plan on playing it safe like Valentina Shevchenko.
‘Bullet’ is coming off one of the biggest wins of her career, handily defeating former strawweight queen Zhang Weili at UFC 322 in November. It was a dominant victory for Shevchenko, though some have recently accused the reigning flyweight champ of playing it safe inside the Octagon.
Ditcheva can certainly understand where critical fight fans are coming from, but in her eyes, that doesn’t change the fact that Shevchenko is hands down the undisputed GOAT of women’s MMA.
“Valentina is just, for me, she’s the GOAT,” Ditcheva told Ariel Helwani. “You can put her in front of anyone, and her distance control, the way she fights, her strategy when she’s in there, just is above anybody else’s. She adapts so quick to someone’s style. I rated Zhang a lot, so I was a little bit surprised, but again, this is why we’ve got weight classes, right? I think the size difference was just too big. I feel like I should never really have kind of swayed a little bit because Valentina, for me, she’s the GOAT.
“She’s getting a bit of flak these days, people thinking she’s not exciting or entertaining, maybe playing it safe, or just kind of dominating her opponents. Maybe a little bit, yeah, but she wants to go out on top. Has anyone really done what she’s done? She’s completed all the rubies on her belt plus more. She’s at the top. The age of her and the way she’s kind of fighting at the moment is just incredible.”
Dakota Ditcheva won’t let money change the way she Competes
While she has nothing but respect for Shevchenko, Ditcheva never wants to be accused of playing it safe inside the cage, no matter how big a star she becomes.
“People want that killer in them; they don’t want people to lose it, but when there’s money on the line, people change.
“For me, I hope one day I don’t do that. I feel like the switch in me would never kind of just play it safe. I’d just always be that person that goes forward.”
Thus far, Ditcheva is a perfect 15-0 in her pro career, with 10 of those wins coming under the PFL banner. Most recently, she earned another decisive victory over Sumiko Inaba at the promotion’s inaugural event in Africa.
She was scheduled to square off with former Bellator Kickboxing champion Denise Kielholtz in February, but an injury forced ‘Dangerous’ to bow out of the bout.
