Fans that follow women's MMA know who Larissa Pacheco is. They also shouldn't be too surprised to hear about her getting a call to the UFC, even if it comes on short notice. Combate reports that Valerie Letourneau has been forced out of her UFC Fight Night: Silva vs. Arlovski bout on September 13. She was set to take on Jessica Andrade at bantamweight. In her stead will be Pacheco, just a few months removed from her first Jungle Fight title defense.
Who is Larissa Pacheco?
The first woman to wear Jungle Fight gold, Pacheco has been a prospect to watch since 2012, when she stormed out of the gate with a 4-0 undefeated record. Since then she's won another six fights to take her to an unblemished 10-0. The 19-year old apparently trains out of the JB Jiu-Jitsu team, but I can't find any thing tying her to a specific camp. Either way, it appears she's fighting out of a pretty small gym at the moment. It should also be noted, that while WMMA is still in it's infancy in many parts of the world, Pacheco's record is pretty barren for a champ in a major regional organization. Even her two title fights were against opponents with a combined record of 5-2. So, while she's been winning, and winning well (4 TKOs, 6 submissions, all wins by stoppage) she has yet to face any serious competition.
What you should expect:
Pacheco seems to have two settings when she's in the cage: throw heaters, do Jiu Jitsu. And most of the time she's going with heaters. She obviously throws with power, partially because she's almost always marching her full bodyweight behind her strikes, and while there are still a lot of technical gaps, the unchecked aggression is nice to see. Speaking of technical gaps, Pacheco carries her chin high and throws with her elbows out. She can work straight punches, but obviously isn't comfortable doing so. She also isn't terribly comfortable in the clinch and appears to rely more on her strength to bully opponents into the cage or to the ground rather than showing technical clinch striking or grappling.
When Pacheco does get the fight to the ground, she's also incredibly aggressive, just with a more submission oriented offense. At the moment, that agression is more fault than foundation as she is far too willing to give up position in looking for submissions. Essentially, she's a fighter with a lot of physical gifts but without the kind of competition or training to plug up the numerous holes in her game.
What this means for her debut:
In a lot of ways, Pacheco reminds me of Andrade when Andrade came into the UFC for her first fight against Liz Carmouche. She was scrappy and aggressive, but a distinct lack of polish saw her taken down and ground out after a competitive first round. I don't know that Andrade will take Pacheco down (she's 5 inches shorter, after all) but I wouldn't be surprised to see Pacheco keep things close early only to get roughed up as the fight goes on. She is willing to take far too many strikes just to land one, too eager to give up position on the ground, and not technical enough in transition. A couple years from now, she may be a future contender, but these are early days for a very raw prospect.
To get us better acquainted, here's her last fight against Lizianne Silveira: