Still basically dipping her toe in the PFL cage, Denise Kielholtz doesn’t see too many differences from her old home of Bellator MMA.
Kielholtz (9-5 MMA) takes on Dakota Ditcheva in the co-main event of PFL New York this Friday, and told media outlets including Cageside Press this week that “this is my second fight in PFL, and for me, it doesn’t feel very different. I see a lot of familiar faces that I also saw in Bellator.”
There’s one key difference really. “For me it just feels like almost the same, only Scott Coker is missing. But for the rest, everything is the same.”
Coker is launching a new MMA promotion in the coming year. The PFL, meanwhile, just announced a merger with Jake Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions. Kielholtz is now 37, not long for the changing landscape of the sport. Asked what was left for her to accomplish in her career, the former kickboxing star said that “at 37, I’m so long in this business, but I’m still having so much fun still, and so hungry still for doing the best I can in the cage. So being this age and being here for so long but still have the same mindset and same fire I had like 20 years ago.”
“Just having fun and living my life, and what else is better than this?”
Ditcheva, she later said, was yet to face a foe quite like her. “I think the biggest thing we’re going to see this Friday is that she never faced an opponent like me before, and that’s going to be the biggest difference from all her other fights.”
“Seeing her and seeing myself, it’s like, we are similar, we are strikers, but still different. Different levels, different fighting style also, but the thing that we both have is the Fight IQ. And Fight IQ comes together, that we will see this Friday.”
Liz Carmouche waits in the wings for the winner of Ditcheva vs. Kielholtz. The 2025 PFL World Tournament winner, many expected her to be the next stop for Ditcheva, one the promotion’s biggest stars.
“I totally understand that she is waiting for this fight, but PFL arranged this fight, and PFL sees this fight as the co-main event for this Friday. All the respect for Liz Carmouche, but PFL has to decide what her next fight is going to be,” Kielholtz stated in regards to the former Bellator women’s flyweight champ. “For me, for my focus, it’s now only on Dakota, and for the rest we will see.”
Watch the full PFL New York media day appearance by Denise Kielholtz above.
