It’s unlikely that any fighter outside of Kayla Harrison’s team knows her better than Larissa Pacheco.
Ahead of Harrison’s title defense against the legendary Amanda Nunes at UFC 334 on Saturday, Pacheco is picking “The Lioness” to upset Harrison and reclaim the bantamweight belt.
A former two-division PFL champion, Pacheco fought Harrison three times under the promotion’s banner between 2019 and 2022, losing the first two and getting revenge in the trilogy bout. They have shared the cage for 65 minutes
in total, which is one reason why Nunes invited Pacheco to be part of her training camp for Harrison in late 2025. The fight was postponed, and Pacheco wasn’t involved in the preparation for UFC 334, but still shared her insight for the historic clash at the Madison Square Garden.
“I believe [Nunes] has so many, so many, so many weapons,” Pacheco told MMA Fighting. “She has more weapons to win this fight than Kayla does.”
Pacheco said Harrison is “a very strong athlete” and simply “the best” when it comes to grappling given her judo background, having won two Olympic gold medals, but grappling in mixed martial arts is a completely different game.
“Amanda is a complete athlete,” Pacheco said. “She has that grappling game. She’s very strong as well. She knows how to use her strength both in striking and in grappling, in jiu-jitsu. She’s an exceptional black belt. There’s nothing more to say. Her jiu-jitsu is impeccable and extremely high-level for MMA.”
“It’s going to be a very tough fight,” she continued. “Kayla is a very strong athlete and very durable as well, I think because of her physical structure. But Amanda is going to test her in a different way. Kayla has a lot more to worry about than Amanda does. I just hope it’s an incredible fight, but I believe Amanda is going to win this one convincingly.”
Harrison has never been finished in the sport, going 3-0 so far in the UFC against Holly Holm, Ketlen Vieira and Julianna Peña. Nunes’ overall UFC résumé is a level above, with Harrison herself calling the Brazilian the greatest of all time, and Pacheco foresees a finish for Nunes in New York.
“Even though I’ve trained with Amanda and seen how complete she is,” Pacheco said. “It’s hard to find a weakness in her game as an athlete and say, ‘Wow, Kayla can do this or that,’ because we already know what Kayla is going to do. But there are so many possibilities, so many possibilities [for Nunes to win]. Amanda dominates on the ground, so if the fight goes to the ground, she can submit her easily. If it stays on the feet, she can knock her out very easily.
“I can’t tell you how this is going to end, because I also have no idea what Amanda’s mindset is right now. It’s the continuation of her training camp, but I wasn’t there, so I didn’t see the final part of it. But based on what I saw before, she can finish the fight in any area, in any situation. The moment she sees an opening, she’s going to finish this fight.”
Pacheco is still hoping to ink a deal with an MMA promotion to resume her career after parting ways with the PFL. In the meantime, however, the Brazilian talent revealed she has agreed to re-enter the Karate Combat pit on Dec. 5 in Miami, and the targeted opponent is one-time UFC title challenger Mayra Bueno Silva.
“I hope this makes some kind of impact, right?” Pacheco said of fighting a fellow UFC veteran. “We’re trying everything we can to make sure something gets noticed. I’ve already gotten my answer [from the UFC], but [my manager] Sam Lee and I aren’t people who accept rejection very well. We keep pushing until the very last moment. Giving up has never been something I’ve done. I’m still very young. Out of all those fighters, Kayla, Amanda, Norma [Dumont], I’m the youngest one. I just turned 32, so I still have a lot left to do, and I have no plans to retire yet. The good thing is that if they’re leaving, and they’re willing to fight, I’m here.”
