PFL Europe stars Simeon Powell and Dakota Ditcheva want to prove themselves as the best in the world by winning the promotion's main league after moving forward tonight (Saturday) in Paris.
The British duo are two of the main stars behind MMA's No.2 promotion in their move into the European market, but have their own ambitions of heading Stateside to compete for the $1million grand prize. First, however, they must get past difficult challenges at the Accor Arena in order to secure their spots at the Dublin final on December 8.
Flyweight Ditcheva will take on Swede Cornelia Holm earlier in the night before Powell faces replacement opponent Daniel Ladero, a wiley Spaniard who has competed in both the PFL and Cage Warriors previously. And wins would put both into the $100,000 final, with a spot in next year's tournament likely for the taking.
"I'm seeing comments asking 'who are they putting Dakota in with?' because of my opponent's record," the Brit, who has moved her training to American Top Team in Florida for the fight, told Mirror Fighting . "Sometimes your record doesn't do you justice but this girl has been around a while and trust me, she's tough.
"I don't think about her record, I'm going in there for a tough fight because she had a tough one in the first round, got knocked down a few times and it was back-and-forth but she definitely will be a tough one to get out of there. I'm expecting a good fight for the fans and I'm not taking it lightly.
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"The only category they had in America was 155lb, and then this year they added 145lb for the females so this is a completely new division. Next year hopefully the plan is to do the main league and get a $1m tournament for the 125lb girls... But you never know with PFL they have so much going on so I never fixate on it. My main focus is to win PFL Europe and then see what happens."
There's a slightly clearer path for Powell, who almost made the jump to America this year when a slew of light-heavyweight contenders were eliminated following failed drugs tests in the first round. But he opted to stay in Europe, where he wants to establish himself as a major star before making the jump to the big league.
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And after sparring sessions with the likes of Johnny Walker, he is confident that he can hang with the world's best fighters at 205lb, telling Mirror Fighting : "I think it just made sense putting me and Dakota as the faces of PFL Europe as young up-and-coming undefeated fighters, it worked to help them and help us to develop without rushing into the world level.
"I could have gone this year but I think patience is importance and next year might be the better time... All I know is that as soon as I heard the news [about the drug test failures] I knew they needed fighters and I called my manager instantly and I was like 'look if they need me to step in then I'm ready'.
"So I think it would have been two weeks notice and I wanted to step right in but they wanted to keep me in Europe and help to build this thing."
Watch Dakota Ditcheva and Simeon Powell tonight in the PFL Europe semi-finals live on DAZN from the sold-out Accor Arena in Paris. The action begins at 4pm for UK viewers.
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