Vale Tudo Relics: The Untold Story of Larissa Pacheco

A poor girl from the Amazon who overcame all the adversities thrown her way until she became a two-division Professional Fighters League champion and earned a pair of million-dollar paydays in the process, Larissa Pacheco’s life could definitely serve as the basis for a Hollywood script.

The Brazilian will pen another definitive chapter in her story when she meets current Bellator MMA titleholder Cris Cyborg for the superfight women’s featherweight championship in the PFL Super Fights “Battle of the Giants: Brace for Impact” co-headliner on Oct. 19 at The Mayadeen in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. There, Pacheco gets her crack at one of the greatest fighters of all-time in a generational clash across five rounds.

“When I had my first MMA fight, Cris was already world champion,” Pacheco told Sherdog.com. “For me, it’s an honor to be able to face her. We have a very similar style. I have no doubt it will be a war.”

TWO SIDES OF THE MMA COIN

Born in Marituba, Brazil, a city situated some seven miles from Belem in the heart of the Amazon, Pacheco helped her mother, Maria Luciene, make ends meet by selling cassava flour at the fair when she was just 14 years old. She learned about a social project that had opened in Marituba and decided to enroll. Excited about the muay thai classes, Pacheco asked one of the instructors to train her for a fight after eight months.

“He said I was very pretty and should go to college,” she said. “He put me in with a boy, who was more experienced and already had a couple of fights, to beat me up in a sparring session.”

It was a grossly unfair situation, and Pacheco got the worst of it. However, as fate would have it, a jiu-jitsu coach from the same project, Joao Bastos, witnessed the scene firsthand and made a point of talking to her before she left. “I asked her what she wanted in life,” he said. “She told me that she studied and worked at the fair, that she lived on rent with her sick mother and really wanted to fight because she needed to make money. I told her, ‘I don’t have money, but I can train you and get you fights.’” There began a partnership that continues to this day.

Upon identifying the raw potential in his new pupil, Bastos provided encouragement without rushing her development. “I realized from the first classes that she was a diamond that needed to be polished,” he said, “but I warned her that we should focus on developing her muay thai and jiu-jitsu for at least a year before putting her in the ring.” Given Pacheco’s rapid evolution and persistence, Bastos agreed to test her as a professional mixed martial artist after a year-plus of training. She was just 17 years old when she faced Raquel Pitbull at a Marituba Fight show on March 15, 2012.

“I’ve never been so nervous, but thank God everything went well,” Bastos said. “She exchanged with Raquel, took her to the ground and caught her fast with an inverted arm-triangle.”

Pacheco scored the submission in a mere 90 seconds. She was paid $28 for her night’s work. After the impressive debut, Pacheco was flooded with opportunities. Six straight victories, all of them finishes, resulted in her being invited to join the largest promotion in Brazil: Jungle Fight. Pacheco needed all of 36 seconds to put away Dinha Wollstaein with punches in her sensational organizational debut at JF 59. It moved her into position for her first title shot two months later against Mexican standout Irene Aldana in the JF 63 co-main event. “I only knew that she came from taekwondo and that she was 26 and I was 19,” Pacheco said. “I got some videos of one of her knockouts with a spinning back kick, and we made a strategy based on that.” She took care of Aldana with third-round punches, capturing the vacant Jungle Fight women’s bantamweight crown in the ninth bout of her career.

‘WE WON’T STOP’

The resounding victory over Aldana and a successful title defense against Lizianne Silveira some three months later earned Pacheco a call from the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Just 20 years old at the time, she replaced Valerie Letourneau on short notice and squared off with Brazilian powerhouse Jessica Andrade at UFC Fight Night 51 on Sept. 13, 2014.

“Less than two years after my first fight in Marituba, I was opening a main card with the biggest organization in the world,” Pacheco said. “I definitely felt the pressure.”

Andrade submitted her with a guillotine choke 4:33 into the first round. Six months later, Pacheco returned to the Octagon to face Dutch kickboxer Germaine de Randamie at UFC 185. A second-round technical knockout loss was compounded by a serious injury suffered during the match.

“This fight resulted in the most difficult time of my career,” Pacheco said. “I broke my arm defending a kick and didn’t fight again for three years. The doctor didn’t want to do the surgery in the United States because I was too young. Thank God I had health insurance in Brazil at the time. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been fighting and might not have had this arm anymore.”

Pacheco still gets emotional when discussing the situation, which went from bad to worse in a hurry. “When I arrive in Brazil, the doctor said that the bone was necrotizing and that fragments were in the muscle,” she said. “He said he had to operate immediately. Otherwise, I would run the risk of having my arm amputated.” Pacheco spent almost five hours in surgery as the damaged part of her bone was reconstructed. After six months, she decided to take another fight in the UFC. “I really needed the money, so I decided to accept an offer and remove the rod in my arm before the time was right. However, the fight was canceled, and I ended up breaking my arm twice in the same place.” In that moment, Pacheco decided to abandon her pursuits in MMA. Again, Bastos stepped in as the voice of reason.

“Everything is telling you to stop,” he said, “but we won’t stop.” Pacheco heeded those words. “This traumatic experience taught me a lot about patience, about knowing that we need to wait, because things don’t happen when we want them to,” she said. “That made me mature a lot.”

BRUSH WITH GREATNESS

On March 24, 2018, exactly three years and 10 days after her ill-fated encounter with de Randamie, Pacheco returned to the cage and finished Karol Rosa with a second-round guillotine choke to claim the vacant Watch Out Combat Show featherweight title. The UFC again took notice. Pacheco was cast on Season 28 of “The Ultimate Fighter”—Robert Whittaker and Kelvin Gastelum served as coaches—and set her sights on getting back to the world’s premier MMA organization.

Behind the scenes, Pacheco ran into Cyborg for the first time. Justino was the UFC women’s featherweight champion at the time and appeared at the venue for a series of interviews and to encourage those who dreamed of one day competing inside the Octagon.

“I recall Cris noticing Larissa was also Brazilian and wishing good luck to her,” Bastos said.

Neither woman figures to remember the meeting with fondness. Pacheco was ousted from the competition by eventual Season 28 winner Macy Chiasson, losing by first-round technical knockout. Six months later, it was Cyborg’s turn to dance with difficulty. She surrendered her championship and suffered her first setback in 13 years when she was victimized by Amanda Nunes in a stunning 51-second knockout to unify the women’s bantamweight and featherweight titles at UFC 232. For many, it marks the moment Nunes lifted the greatest-of-all-time mantle from Cyborg.

FROM TRILOGY TO TWO-DIVISION ROYALTY

Cyborg and Pacheco traveled different paths after their chance encounter. While Cyborg signed with Bellator MMA, Pacheco linked arms with the Professional Fighters League and made her company debut opposite two-time Olympic gold medalist Kayla Harrison in May 2019.

The heavily favored Harrison’s athleticism and superior takedown game neutralized the Brazilian’s striking and paved the way to a unanimous decision in the regular season. Pacheco went back to the drawing board, posted victories in her next two appearances and set up a rematch with Harrison for the 2019 PFL women’s lightweight championship seven months later. Once again, the American judoka imposed her will, this time across five rounds, and exited the cage with the 155-pound title and a $1 million payday. It was a difficult pill for Pacheco to swallow, but she began to see a third showdown between them as an inevitability. A global health crisis afforded her more time to grow.

“Because there was no season in 2020 due to the pandemic,” Pacheco said, “I took advantage of this period to evolve.”

She focused on improving her physical strength and defensive wrestling skills for the 2021 season. Pacheco won her two regular-season bouts with ease, but an inability to make weight resulted in her removal from the competition prior to the semifinals. She was forced to watch Harrison run through Genah Fabian and Taylor Guardado, as the Ohio native claimed her second straight championship and another million-dollar prize.

Focused on a trilogy with the two-time champion, Pacheco knew she could not afford any other missteps. After training in Rio de Janeiro for her first regular-season match of the 2022 season against Zamzagul Fayzallanova, her manager, Alex Davis, connected Pacheco with American Top Team’s Roan Carneiro and soon had her settled in Atlanta. With ATT now behind her, she focused on the key points for her long-awaited second rematch with Harrison: takedown defense, strength and explosion.

“Larissa knew she couldn’t make any more mistakes,” Bastos said. “In addition to the structure at ATT, we had the support of a psychologist and nutritionist.”

The investment paid immediate dividends. Pacheco punched out the aforementioned Fabian to qualify for the playoffs, then battered Olena Kolesnyk to a first-round stoppage in the semifinals. On the other side of the bracket, Harrison tapped Martina Jindrova with an arm-triangle choke to set up the trilogy.

It was a 25-minute war the rivals fought round by round. Harrison outgrappled the Brazilian in the first and third periods, while Pacheco stonewalled the American’s takedowns and flexed her superiority in the standup exchanges in the second and fourth frames. Round 5 would decide it. Pacheco kept it standing and made her way to a career-altering unanimous decision that was accompanied by a $1 million paycheck.

The result sent shockwaves through the sport and led to immediate changes in the PFL. The 155-pound weight class was dissolved and replaced by a women’s featherweight division. Harrisson elected to move on to the UFC, and Pacheco made her second million during the 2023 season by beating Julia Budd, Amber Leibrock, Kolesnyk and Marina Spivac at 145 pounds to become the PFL’s first two-division champion.

SHOOTING FOR THE STARS

After besting Harrison and establishing herself as one of the PFL’s cornerstones, Pacheco made a permanent move to the United States for a variety of reasons.

“I was losing a lot of money due to taxes through double taxation,” she said, “so I decided to come and live in Las Vegas because it provided more possibilities.” The PFL’s acquisition of Bellator only increased her motivation to live closer to the action. “I knew that their idea was always to have a unification fight between champions of both organizations,” Pacheco said, “so I never stopped training.”

Suddenly, the legendary Cyborg was in her crosshairs.

“We are aggressive athletes and we have very similar games, always moving forward and looking for the knockout,” Pacheco said. “I believe it will be a war, a fight that will go down in MMA history.” She understands a win could put her in the greatest-of-all-time conversation with Cyborg and Nunes. “They’re the two biggest stars in the history of MMA,” Pacheco said. “My victory wouldn’t diminish everything Cris did for the sport, but I hope it can put me on the same shelf as them.”