Cris Cyborg is without doubt one of the best fighters in girls’s MMA historical past, however Larissa Pacheco nonetheless expects some followers and specialists to downplay her feat if she beats her fellow Brazilian countrywoman within the co-main occasion of PFL’s Oct. 19 pay-per-view in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Pacheco enters the match driving 10 straight victories, a run that features PFL championship wins in two totally different weight lessons and a 2022 choice win over Kayla Harrison.
“I believe this [Cyborg fight] provides a big push to my profession,” Pacheco informed MMA Preventing. “Beating her, after I beat her, they’ll nonetheless say, ‘Oh, it’s simple now, Larissa is 9 years youthful than Cris.’ They’ll all the time have excuses for my wins. However I couldn’t care much less. What issues is to go there and win and show it to myself. I’ve nothing to show to anybody else. Nobody pays my payments and I don’t owe anybody something.”
Harrison, who’s seemingly one win away from a shot on the UFC bantamweight title after dominating Holly Holm in her octagon debut, has solely misplaced as soon as in MMA. That loss got here by the hands of Pacheco, although the two-time PFL champion nonetheless went 1-2 over three contests towards Harrison underneath the PFL banner. She hopes Harrison by no means loses once more.
“I would like her to be champion, to proceed to develop, and the whole lot goes effectively in her life, and he or she solely has one [loss] there. ‘Larissa! Larissa!’ Echoing ceaselessly in her head,” Pacheco mentioned with amusing.
Cyborg has gained six straight MMA bouts since leaving UFC in 2019, and has additionally picked up 4 wins in boxing. Pacheco admits she puzzled if PFL would ever get this combat accomplished after some delays, however saved coaching for months hoping it might ultimately materialize.
“[This fight] isn’t a dream for me, it’s not one thing I’ve appeared as much as my whole profession as a result of she wasn’t even within the PFL till this 12 months,” Pacheco mentioned. “However a buddy of mine jogged my memory that she informed me, seven years in the past, that she was a fan of Cyborg, and I informed her we’d be combating at some point. And it’s occurring now.”
“We’ve got an thought of how the combat will play out, however we by no means know for certain,” she continued. “We’ve got the same type, we’re each aggressive and stroll ahead your entire time, no turning again. For some folks, it’s like a lottery. Who goes down first? I don’t know, it’s laborious to say, however all I do know is that we’ll each give our all in there. Cris has an distinctive type and can do the whole lot she will be able to to win, so it’s going to be a historic combat.”
