There is a new queen at women’s lightweight, and her name is Larissa Pacheco after beating Kayla Harrison.
Making the move as an Olympic Judoka, Harrison has been destroying nearly everyone put in front of her in the PFL‘s lightweight division. She came into her 2022 PFL Championships finals bout with an undefeated record, having won the $1 million grand prize two years in a row and having already beaten her opponent, Larissa Pacheco on two occasions.
Larissa Pacheco Upsets Kayla Harrison
While this year’s tournament proved that Larissa Pacheco was a worthy challenger for the final, few expected to see the fight that went down on Friday night. She brought a pace against Harrison from the start to the finish, doing her best to stuff takedowns and offer offense from her back.
This was an extremely close fight that could have gone either way. However, in the end, it was Pacheco who scored the enormous upset, earning a 48-47 unanimous decision from all three judge’s, scoring a million dollars, and handing the massively hyped Kayla Harrison her first defeat.
MMA Twitter Reacts
The MMA community certainly had some thoughts about Kayla Harrison losing for the first time in the PFL 10 main event. While there may have been apprehension about paying the $50 price tag for the promotion’s first ever pay-per-view event, it was clear from the reactions on social media that the Olympian has a ton of buzz around her, and this upset left the community stunned.
“Larissa Pacheco just defeated Kayla Harrison via unanimous decision. That is the upset of the year. Kayla Harrison has suffered her first defeat in MMA. She’s no longer undefeated. Incredible scenes,” Chamatkar Sandhu wrote on Twitter.
“Guess PFL’s first superfight is Pacheco/Harrison 4,” tweeted Jed I. Goodman.
“Pacheco had only lost to one woman since 2015: Harrison twice. She has improved every time out and finished five straight heading into this $1 million final. Now, she’s a PFL champ,” wrote Marc Raimondi.
“Hey, massive shouts to the judges. They got a massive decision right,” Sean Sheehan rightly noted.
“I’m just glad it didn’t get to the ‘Kayla would beat Floyd Mayweather in a fight’ point like it did with Ronda,’” MMA News’ Dan Levy added.
“Upset of the year. Incredible performance by Larissa Pacheco. Seems Kayla Harrison was going through a lot leading into this fight, but no excuses. That win was legit,” Mike Bohn wrote.
“Imagine how many parlays just died from that decision. Everyone thought Harrison was a lock, and then she lost. Just so crazy considering she was undefeated and already had two wins over Pacheco. Top-10 biggest MMA upset of all time in my eyes,” said Adam Martin.
“Next season is gonna be fire,” wrote Belal Muhammad.
“Larissa clearly worked hard ! wrestling defense was very very impressive, didn’t give Kayla any time to rest. Now she’s the Queen. What a fight,” tweeted UFC fighter Casey O’Neill.
“Wow! Well earned! Great fight!” bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling wrote.
“This was meme funnier when I thought Kayla was gonna win 😅 Well deserved win for the new queen!” joked Angela Hill.
“Wow. Both of them are super impressive. I don’t remember pancheco being this good though ! Big improvements ?” said Chris Weidman.
“Wow 🤩 what a fight! Congrats to both ladies especially the new champion Larissa Pacheco! 5 rounds on this pace wow respect ✊🏾” writes Gilbert Burns.
“Very impressive fight for Pacheco,” tweeted Ben Askren.
Congratulations are in order for Larissa Pacheco, after scoring a $1 million dollar prize, and beating Kayla Harrison in what she has said will be her final tournament run. It is going to be fascinating to see what is next for both ladies and whether or not a fourth will take place.
Were you surprised at how Kayla Harrison vs Larissa Pacheco 3 went?