5 Defining Moments: Larissa Pacheco

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.