Larissa Pacheco upsets two-time champion Kayla Harrison to claim PFL women’s lightweight championship
Larissa Pacheco becomes the first woman to defeat Kayla Harrison in MMA at PFL 10
The Professional Fighters League returned to us tonight, November 25, 2022, for PFL 10, headlined by a women’s lightweight championship bout between two-time champion Kayla Harrison and her long-time rival Larissa Pacheco.
This was the third time these two met inside a cage, both times of which Harrison won via unanimous decision (30-25, 30-27, 30-27 and 50-43, 50-45, 50-45).
But, this was a much, much different fight than their first two.
Harrison came into this trilogy bout with a record of 15-0, never having lost a single round of her career, while Pacheco on the other hand came in with a record of 18-4; she was on a five-fight win streak, having secured all five wins via knockout, and the only other defeats of her career came in the UFC to future, now former UFC champions.
Pacheco looked big going into this fight, and it may have played a factor in winning the unanimous decision (48-47, 48-47, 48-47) tonight.
Harrison was all over Pacheco in the opening round, but the Brazilian made it a fight in the second, as she busted the two-time champion up whilst defending her takedown attempts. She snapped Harrison down in an attempt to secure an anaconda choke as well, though she was unable to secure the stoppage.
Once taken down in round three, Pacheco throws up her legs for a triangle choke and remains in that position for a couple of minutes, though she’s unable to secure that as submission well.
Pacheco takes Harrison’s back in both the fourth and fifth rounds, though Harrison was very good at reversing position, as well as getting up every time she was on bottom no matter how tired she was.
The striking was relatively even early on, with Pacheco clearly pulling away as the fight went longer.
Larissa Pacheco hands Kayla Harrison the first defeat of her career tonight at PFL 10, as she claims the PFL women’s lightweight championship and the million-dollar grand prix prize in the process.
As for Kayla Harrison, she was attempting to not only lay claim to yet another title, not only to remain undefeated and improve to 16-0, but she was attempting to become the only fighter in PFL history to win the championship in three consecutive seasons.
Natan Schulte won it twice in a row but failed to do so three-straight times, as well as Lance Palmer and Ray Cooper III. Kayla Harrison will be mentioned along those names as another fighter that couldn’t get over the two-time champion hump.
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