MMA: Dakota Ditcheva calls for more protection for fighters facing social media abuse

Dakota Ditcheva says she expects social media abuse to only get worse as she continues her fighting career.

The 27-year-old is fast becoming one of the most recognisable female faces in MMA and she has more than 300,000 followers on Instagram.

Ditcheva is used to going viral for her knockouts, but as calls grow for social media platforms and governments to do more to protect users, specifically female athletes, Ditcheva says he has stopped reading comments on her posts.

“[Hate] is a given in this sport, which is so upsetting to have to accept that and be prepared for that as a sports athlete and it’s something I’ve kind of been training myself for,” Ditcheva tells BBC Sport.

“My mum is constantly making sure I’m not reading certain things and preparing me for it getting worse and me avoiding it. I’m lucky I can speak to my parents and siblings.”

Ditcheva has spoken openly in the past about the sexualisation she faces on social media and recently had a man contact her mother claiming they were in love.

“I had a certain person who started messaging my mum and saying we’d been speaking, and that I liked their post which meant that we were together and in love, and it got really obsessive,” Ditcheva says.

“It kind of freaked me out and it got really intense, the type of stuff they were typing. I was lucky I had my mum who helped me deal with that and kind of explain what these people are going to be doing.

“This is not something we’re born to understand, and born to put up with these strange occurrences all the time, we’re just normal people living normal lives and getting worried about stuff.”