A single million-dollar payday was not enough to quench
Larissa
Pacheco’s competitive thirst in the
Professional Fighters League.
The onetime champion at 155 pounds will pick up her pursuit of a
women’s featherweight title when she throws hands with
Amber
Leibrock in the
PFL 5 co-headliner on Friday at Overtime Elite Arena in
Atlanta. Pacheco enters the cage on the strength of a seven-fight
winning streak that now spans more than three years. She last
appeared at PFL 2, where she was awarded a three-round unanimous
decision over former
Bellator
MMA champion
Julia Budd in
their April 7 pairing.
As Pacheco moves ever closer to her looming battle with Leibrock at
145 pounds, a look at five of the many moments that have come to
define her:
1. The Fruits of Labor
Pacheco cemented her position as one of the sport’s top prospects
when she laid claim to the vacant
Jungle
Fight women’s bantamweight championship with a third-round
technical knockout of
Irene
Aldana in the Jungle Fight 63 co-main event on Dec. 21, 2013 at
the Para State University Gymnasium in Belem, Brazil. Aldana bowed
out 1:50 into Round 3. The confrontation was marked by wild bursts
of offense. Pacheco applied pressure behind basic one-twos and body
kicks, while Aldana answered with close-range knee strikes and
straight right hands. They traded advantageous positions during
frenetic grappling exchanges for much of the second round, and the
pace ultimately broke Aldana. Pacheco kept her foot on the
accelerator in Round 3, continued to let her hands go and closed it
out with an exquisite multi-punch volley that dropped Aldana to her
knees in the center of the cage and brought about an immediate
stoppage.
2. Pack Your Bags
Dutch muay thai stylist
Germaine
de Randamie took care of Pacheco with punches in the second
round of their UFC 185 women’s bantamweight prelim on March 14,
2015 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. “The Iron Lady”
brought it to a close 2:02 into Round 2. Pacheco, just 20 years of
age at the time, was never competitive. De Randamie stuck her with
a right hand inside the first minute, paired jabs with leg kicks
and answered a clinch from the Brazilian with a jarring knee in
close quarters. In the second round, she staggered Pacheco with a
right uppercut and followed with a series of pinpoint overhand
rights that drove her to the fence and resulted in the stoppage.
The
Ultimate Fighting Championship cut Pacheco following the
defeat, as she slipped to a disappointing 0-2 inside the
Octagon.
3. Save the Neck for Me
Pacheco rebounded from her UFC release and walked away with the
Watch Out Combat Show women’s featherweight championship when she
dispatched
Karol Rosa
with a guillotine choke in the second round of their WOCS 49
headliner on March 24, 2018 at the Hotel Laghetto Stilo Barra Rio
in Rio de Janeiro. Rosa conceded defeat 2:59 into Round 2. Pacheco
set the tone with crisp combination punching and stellar takedown
defense. She powered into top position early in the first round,
climbed to a mounted crucifix and proceeded to maul Rosa with
ground-and-pound. The Parana Vale Tudo rep survived the onslaught,
but the strength and technique disparity proved too great for her
to overcome. Late in Round 2, Pacheco cut off another takedown from
her weary countrywoman, pressed her into the fence and bit down on
the fight-ending guillotine.
4. Second Fiddle
Two-time Olympic gold medalist
Kayla
Harrison captured the first of her two Professional Fighters
League titles with a unanimous decision over Pacheco in their
women’s lightweight final at the 2019 PFL Championships inside
Madison Square Garden’s Hulu Theater in New York. Scores were
50-43, 50-45, and 50-45. Pacheco could match neither the strength
nor the technique of the
American Top Team standout across five one-sided rounds.
Harrison executed multiple takedowns, battered the Brazilian with
ground-and-pound and achieved full mount on multiple occasions.
Beyond an attempted guillotine choke in the fifth round, Pacheco
posed little threat to the decorated American judoka. The win
brought Harrison a $1 million payday and moved her to 2-0 in her
head-to-head series with the Brazilian.
5. A True Breakthrough
Pacheco sprang a monumental upset under the Professional Fighters
League banner and took a unanimous decision from Harrison, as their
women’s lightweight final headlined the 2022 PFL Championships on
Nov. 25, 2022 at Madison Square Garden’s Hulu Theater in New York.
The heavy-handed and resourceful Brazilian swept to power behind
48-47 scorecards from all three judges, earning $1 million in the
process. Harrison followed a familiar path in the first round,
where she looked to be in prime form. She tripped Pacheco to the
canvas, applied oppressive top control and racked up points with
body-head ground-and-pound, throwing punches with varying
intensity. However, Harrison did not exact enough of a toll to
discourage the former Jungle Fight champion. Pacheco rebounded in
the second round, seized the initiative with an attempted
guillotine choke and put the American Top Team star on notice. From
there, they tested one another in a series of back-and-forth
exchanges, on the feet, in the clinch and on the ground. Harrison
secured multiple takedowns, but she either wandered into danger
through submissions—she found herself trapped in a triangle choke
in the third round—or was met with ferocious resistance from
Pacheco’s hyperactive bottom game, as the
Joao Bastos
protégé snapped off rapid-fire punches and hammerfists from her
back. When it came time for the decision to be read, Harrison’s
face carried a look of resignation. Those doubts proved to be
well-founded.