MMA free agent Larissa Pacheco wants to join the UFC after becoming a two-division season winner in the PFL, but it appears that the promotion isn’t interested in signing her.
Pacheco last fought MMA in October 2024, when her 10-fight winning streak was snapped in a five-round war with Cris Cyborg at featherweight. Pacheco parted ways with the promotion in 2025 and started campaigning for a deal with the UFC as a bantamweight, and decided to book a fight at Karate Combat to prove the UFC she could make 135 pounds.
Pacheco made weight and won her match this past Saturday, scoring a violent knockout over Polish kickboxer Julia Stasiuk in Miami, but said UFC matchmaker still passed on making her an offer.
“Sam got in touch with Mick, sent him an email, pitched everything he could,” Pacheco told PVT. “But the response was, ‘I’m not interested but thank you.’ And that was it.”
Pacheco’s manager told MMA Fighting the e-mail was sent Tuesday.
Photo via PVT
“I don’t know what else I have to prove or explain,” Pacheco said. “I’ve already campaigned to get in, I’ve already shown my value. Since I left, which was 11 years ago, I’ve shown my evolution as an athlete. I beat their champion. I knocked out Irene [Aldana] and submitted Karol Rosa, who are girls ranked in their division. I don’t know what else I have to do for them to sign me. That answer was very clear to me.”
Pacheco fought three times with Kayla Harrison in the PFL cage between 2019 and 2022, losing the first two and getting the victory the last time they met. Harrison has never lost since, going on to win the UFC belt in 2025 with a win over Julianna Peña.
“I don’t know what’s missing, what the problem is,” Pacheco said. “I’d like to understand it better. Like, ‘Larissa, we don’t like you, you don’t sell.’ I don’t know. But I don’t think that’s it. I don’t know if they’re trying to protect Kayla. I don’t know if it’s about that. But I’d really like to have an answer about it.
“I don’t know if it’s because of my appearance. I’ve heard from some comments that it could be because they’d be replacing a champion, or they might end up with a champion, who looks more masculine than their current champion, who is a mother, blonde, and has blue eyes. I don’t know if that could be it, but I don’t think I have anything left to prove.”
Pacheco’s team is still hopeful that she will eventually secure a deal with the UFC.
“Larissa’s exclusion doesn’t make sense to anyone,” Sam Lee wrote in a statement to MMA Fighting. “Her work ethic and record speak for themselves — she holds a win over the current UFC champion, has knocked out Irene and submitted Karol, and has never turned down a fight or handpicked an opponent. She is a completely different athlete from her first UFC stint: at just 19, she was still physically developing and lacked the right structure around her. Even then, her only losses came against future UFC champions.”
Pacheco was part of Amanda Nunes’ training camp for UFC 324, when she was scheduled to face Kayla Harrison, and is currently living in Sao Paulo and training “with a far more professional setup” alongside UFC veterans Demian Maia and Lucas Martins.
“The division is in need of a true knockout artist — something that hasn’t been present since Amanda stepped away,” Lee added. “Larissa would be a major asset to the UFC’s bantamweight division. If anyone deserves a second chance, it’s Larissa Pacheco.”
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