Six world champions were crowned as the PFL brought the curtain down on their 2024 season at the PFL World Championship in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Russian athletes dominated the finals, with four Russian champions crowned on the night, including Timur Khizriev, who starred in a superb main event performance against 2022 featherweight champion Brendan Loughnane to capture the 145-pound crown. Also on the card, Turkmenistan’s Dovletdzhan Yagshimuradov became his nation’s first major MMA world champion with a blistering 58-second stoppage of 2023 champion Impa Kasanganay.
But the undeniable star of the show was England’s own Dakota Ditcheva, who captured the PFL women’s flyweight world title to complete her incredible rise to the top of the PFL in just two years since joining the PFL Europe season in 2023.
Ditcheva’s TKO finish of former UFC title challenger Taila Santos saw her become the first fighter to stop the Brazilian contender, and proved to the doubters that she’s every bit a world champion. The big problem now lies with the PFL, who somehow have to find Ditcheva decent, competitive fights after she spent the last two years running the table in their European and global seasons.
On this week’s episode of The RDX Sports Podcast with Simon Head, I take a look back at the final event of the PFL’s 2024 season to bring you the last word on the weekend’s big fight action.
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