Pacheco reveals UFC snub left her stranded in free agency: 'The market has closed its doors on me'

Larissa Pacheco, a former two-division PFL champion with a decision win over UFC bantamweight champion Kayla Harrison on her record, has spent a year in MMA free agency without receiving a single serious offer from a major promotion.

The 32-year-old Brazilian was released by PFL following her five-round war with Cris Cyborg and has since pursued deals across the globe — including approaches to the UFC, KSW, and Oktagon in Europe — only to be turned away each time. She believes the UFC’s refusal to sign her has effectively poisoned the wider market.

“It’s the biggest promotion in the world, so it kind of sets the rules for the market,” Pacheco told MMA Fighting. “If they sign me, I’ll hold up an entire division, holding up the progress of 10 or 15 girls who would otherwise make it into the promotion. We’ve tried everywhere, and that’s what keeps happening.”

Pacheco suspects the UFC’s reluctance is rooted in protecting Harrison, the promotion’s reigning 135-pound champion whom she defeated in a trilogy bout during her PFL tenure. Multiple promoters, she says, have told her directly that the problem is her own level — that opponents capable of matching her would demand fees no regional promotion can justify, and that if she won a belt, she would stall the division’s pipeline.

“There’s no athlete at Larissa’s level,” she quoted promoters as telling her. “The athletes we can get will demand an outrageous amount of money to fight Larissa. And if she wins the belt, which is probably what’s going to happen, she’ll hold up the division.”

Her only competitive outing in the past two years came at Karate Combat, where she stopped Julia Stasiuk to demonstrate she could make 135 pounds after previously winning PFL titles at 145 and 155 pounds. The exercise did little to move the needle.

“That win proves that I can make weight, but it doesn’t put me where I need to be, where I deserve to be,” Pacheco said. “Karate Combat is giving me an opportunity, but it’s not my sport. It’s not an MMA event.”

Her last MMA victory came in the 2023 PFL featherweight season final, a decision over Marina Mokhnatkina that extended her winning streak to ten — seven of which ended by first-round knockout. She has not competed in MMA since.

“It’s sad, actually,” she said. “I’m still very young, and I have a long career ahead of me. It makes me really sad because I wanted to keep working. Even Karate Combat has a hard time finding an opponent who’s willing to fight me.”