Although she become the first person to defeat Kayla
Harrison in 16 professional appearances, Larissa
Pacheco still saw plenty of room for improvement in her
unanimous decision triumph at the 2022 PFL Championships.
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“It was good, but it wasn’t great,” Pacheco said through a
translator at the post-fight press conference (video via MMA Sucka).
“There’s a lot of things that happened this fight that I thought
were going to go one way for me and they didn’t. I obviously
noticed that she was being frustrated with a lot of her takedown
attempts, and with that, I gained confidence. I’m just happy I was
able to stick with the strategy, stick with what we had planned in
order to come out on top.”
Harrison still owns a 2-1 career mark against Pacheco, and the
28-year-old Brazilian is more than willing to face the two-time
Olympic gold medalist for a fourth time if the situation calls for
it.
“Kayla has a rematch whenever she wants,” Pacheco said. “I’m happy
to give it to her and I know she’s going to come back even
stronger.”
Harrison was rarely tested prior to Friday night, and even in her
first two meeting with Pacheco, the American Top Team product
clearly won all eight rounds between the two lightweights. Still,
Pacheco was able to gain confidence from those two meetings, and
that allowed her to win a competitive five-round verdict in the
trilogy.
“I just noticed that I’m as good as her, and that’s what I picked
up on in those first two outings,” Pacheco said. “I noticed in
every single one of her fights, the girls that come in to fight
her, they come in defeated. They know the outcome of the fight.
Whereas I was staying close to her in our first two outings and
tonight as well, because I wanted the opportunity to land a big
hand. I wanted the opportunity to connect a knee as she was coming
to take me down. I knew I could capitalize on this moment, and
tonight was the night.”