The unbeaten fighter who might have been the best in all of MMA is no more. Kayla Harrison, a two-time lightweight PFL tournament winner, suffered her first MMA loss on Saturday when she was defeated by Larissa Pacheco in a unanimous decision, shockingly dropping her record to 15-1.
Only four of Harrison’s fights have even gone the full distance prior to this one. Two of the prior three decision victories were achieved against Pacheco, a former UFC fighter who has competed in the PFL since PFL 1 in 2019.
Pacheco, who started Saturday as a +550 underdog, won the fight 48–47 according to all three judges. The defeat of Harrison adds to a recent string of shockers in MMA, including defeats of Kamaru Usman and Israel Adesanya, two of the sport’s top pound-for-pound competitors from the UFC.
The UFC bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes, who so many fans wanted to see face Harrison, lost her title to a surprise challenger named Julianna Pea just 11 months prior. That belt has already been taken back by Nunes.
For years, Harrison has loomed as probably the finest mixed martial artist not under contract with the UFC. She was almost boringly dominant against opponents who weren’t Pacheco. The two-time Olympic gold medalist in judo had nine of her 15 victories come down to first-round finishes, many of which involved armbars.
Harrison was the most well-known player in the PFL, but there were frequent complaints about the caliber of the opposition she faced. The concept of a Nunes-Harrison superfight was eagerly anticipated, but it has lost some of its appeals.
Harrison said earlier this week that she has two fights left on her PFL contract before becoming a free agent, so it is essentially up to Harrison to decide where she goes from here. She likely planned to walk into the negotiating table unbeaten, but she isn’t the only MMA star to have her ambitions derailed in the previous 12 months.