Larissa Pacheco Focused on 2023 PFL Season, Not Kayla Harrison

The 2022 Professional Fighters League women’s lightweight titleholder Larissa Pacheco is focusing on other things this year.

Last year, Pacheco (19-4, 8-2 PFL) shocked the world by becoming the first fighter to defeat two-time Olympic gold medalist and two-time PFL champion Kayla Harrison. When the pair collided in the 2022 PFL Championships, Pacheco put on a dominant performance en route to a unanimous decision victory. In 2023, the Brazilian champion will move down to featherweight in an attempt to duplicate the success and win the championship again. Pacheco will be welcomed into the 145-pound division by former Bellator MMA titleholder Julia Budd at 2023 PFL 2 on April 7. Ahead of her upcoming assignment, Pacheco told Sherdog she’s solely focusing on capturing the women’s featherweight tournament and doesn’t foresee another clash with Harrison anytime soon.

“I don't really anticipate a fight with her anytime soon. I'm also not going to try to cram one of those into the already-packed PFL schedule. I don't really think she's focusing on that right now, to be honest. I look forward to getting my season done and done right. Once that's done, we can talk about another fight against Kayla. I think that'll be good timing for it. I don't want to just risk putting it into my already pretty busy schedule.”

Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro
(00:37) The life of a champion
(02:30) Buying a new house
(04:25) Moving down to featherweight
(06:32) Preparing to move down to 145
(10:01) Her six-bout winning streak
(12:00) Whether she expects to face Harrison this year
(13:19) Outro