‘I’m A Lot More Versatile Than Kayla’

ARLINGTON, TEXAS — If everything goes her way in the 2022 Professional Fighter’s League (PFL) season, Larissa Pacheco will get her trilogy bout with Kayla Harrison.

The stars appeared to be aligning in 2021 as the former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Bantamweight prospect led the Lightweight leaderboard. That was up until a weight miss in the semifinals removed her from the tournament. Therefore, Taylor Guardado made the best of the opportunity and defeated Mariana Morais to get the finals title bout opposite Harrison.

As a result, the Olympic gold medalist in Judo picked up her fifth submission victory when closing the show in round two. Watching from the sidelines, the Brazilian wasn’t impressed.

“It was a basic performance,” Pacheco told MMAMania.com. “She fought another athlete that has to eat in order to make weight and I feel that with my game, I’m a lot more versatile than Kayla. I have a lot more weapons, a lot more things to show and I feel like she has more stuff to prove. She has to show some variables in her game and different sides of it instead of the usual.”

Since departing UFC, Pacheco’s lone losses in her seven outings have come via unanimous decision to Harrison. Aside from those, her success has consistently come by way of finish victories.

Pacheco attributes the change in weight class as the key to her recent winning ways. Now having gone through her 2021 ending experience with the miss, she feels better ready for her first obstacle in Kazakhstan’s Zamzagul Fayzallanova this Fri. night (May 6, 2022) at 2022 PFL 3.

“Unfortunately, looking back, I was going through some personal stuff,” Pacheco said of her season-ending weight miss. “I had some stuff up in my head. I’ve always been very committed to my job, to what I have to do. I know making weight’s the first part of the job. That said, this was the first time that ever happened, and like I said, I’m extremely committed and I know what I have to do to get the job done.”

“The offseason work was great,” she concluded. “Just been prepping myself and my body so that we don’t make the same mistakes I made last year as far as weight cutting goes so I’m ready to go to war.”

MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE results and real-time play-by-play coverage of the entire PFL 3 main card below, which begins at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN2 and ESPN+. We’ll also provide quick results for the “Prelims” undercard on ESPN+, which will start streaming at 6:00 p.m. ET.

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