Chelsea Hackett is essentially in win-or-lose mode heading into her PFL 4 co-main event bout against Dakota Dycheva.
But Hackett is just grateful to be competing regularly after being out of action for nearly three years since losing to Victoria Leonard on Dana White’s Contender Series in November 2020. Thursday’s bout will be Hackett’s third fight in about 10 months under the Professional Fighters League banner, a welcome change of pace for the Australian Muay Thai specialist.
“PFL has been a big part of my career,” Hackett said during a recent media call. “I still [24]As you get older and fight more, you have to learn and grow more. I’m a female fighter from Australia. There are really not many competitive, professional women in my area. So after fighting on Dana White’s Contender Series, I couldn’t find an opponent for almost three years. I literally couldn’t find an opponent when I got home.
“PFL came along at a time when I was literally stuck. I wasn’t developing as a fighter. I was in the gym every day working out and getting better but I never had the opportunity to show it off. PFL signed me because I had been inactive for so long and in that sense I am forever grateful to PFL. They’re doing amazing things for women’s MMA. They’re definitely putting them on par with the men. To be honest, I would have been stuck without the fights in Australia. That’s the truth.”
Hackett defeated Kai Bennett in a PFL showcase bout last August, but her season debut didn’t go as planned, suffering a mid-round submission loss to Jenna Bishop on April 4. It was important for “The Hammer” to play to her opponent’s strengths, rather than her own.
“Jenna flew under the radar, and when she was selected as my opponent I knew she was dangerous,” Hackett said. “She’s a fourth-degree black belt in jiu-jitsu, an ADCC world champion… With Jenna, her strengths are in a different category than me. I’m obviously a Muay Thai fighter, I love striking and I like to stay on the ground, but as you saw in my PFL debut, I love wrestling and I love the ground game. I knew going into Jenna that I wasn’t going to be able to play that game. She has the experience, she has the strength.
“… The most disappointing thing about that match was starting slow and not executing my game plan quickly enough. She got behind me in about 60 seconds. The thing that hurt me the most about that match was knowing when I was on my feet and I just wasn’t on my feet that night.”
Hackett will need to stop the highly-touted Ditcheva, the unbeaten and current PFL European flyweight champion, in the first round to advance to the postseason, and with that in mind, he will approach the bout with an appropriate sense of urgency.
“You have to have the intention and mindset from the beginning. It’s pretty much 0 to 100 in this tournament. If you don’t make it, you’re going to be made,” Hackett said. “That’s the way to go into this match. Obviously, I want to be the hammer. In my last match, I was the nail. In this match, I’m more than ready to be the hammer… Either way, I want to win. I need to beat her. That’s my focus. If I don’t win in the first round, that’s it. I’ll just have to be patient. But I need that win.”
If she can upset Ditcheva, especially on a co-headlining stage, Hackett will be able to erase the sting of her last loss, and she also praised the PFL for giving her such a high-profile opportunity.
“Being given this fight, not just the fight, but the co-main spot, it means a lot to me,” Hackett said. “It shows that the PFL doesn’t judge a fighter on a loss. They don’t judge a fighter on a loss. I didn’t show anything in my last fight. I didn’t play to my potential. That’s what motivated me the most, made me hungrier coming into this fight as a co-main. I take it very seriously. I want to show my game. I want to win. I want to give back to the PFL for giving me this opportunity. And to do that, I need to get a win.”
