A familiar impediment stands between
Larissa
Pacheco and a second seven-figure payday in the
Professional Fighters League.
The surging Brazilian will meet
Olena
Kolesnyk for a third time when their 2023 women’s featherweight
semifinal serves as the
PFL 8 co-main event on Friday inside The Theater at Madison
Square Garden in New York. Pacheco, who has beaten the Ukrainian
twice, enters their rematch on the strength of an eight-fight
winning streak. She last appeared at PFL 5, where she buried
Amber
Leibrock with punches just 45 seconds into their confrontation.
Meanwhile, Kolesnyk has rattled off back-to-back victories. She
last fought on June 16, when she outpointed
Yoko
Higashi to a unanimous decision in their three-round clash at
145 pounds.
As Pacheco and Kolesnyk approach their latest encounter, a look at
some of the numbers that have accompanied them to this point:
28: Years of age for Pacheco, who was born in Belem, Brazil, on
Sept. 7, 1994.
8: Pacheco wins by submission, accounting for 38% of her career
total. Her methods of choice: two armbars, two triangle chokes, two
guillotine chokes, one anaconda choke and one keylock. Pacheco
holds 10 other wins by knockout or technical knockout (48%) and
three more by decision (14%).
1,326: Days since Pacheco last experienced defeat—a five-round
unanimous decision loss to two-time Olympic gold medalist
Kayla
Harrison on Dec. 31, 2019.
36: Seconds needed for Pacheco to punch out
Dinha
Wollstaein at a
Jungle
Fight event in October 2013. Nearly a decade later, it remains
her fastest finish to date.
49: Combined victories between the three opponents—Harrison
(twice),
Germaine
de Randamie and
Jessica
Andrade—who have beaten Pacheco. They boast a cumulative .742
winning percentage at 49-17.
32: Years of age for Kolesnyk, who was born on Nov. 2, 1990 in
Odessa, Ukraine.
4: Kolesnyk victories by knockout or technical knockout, accounting
for 44.5% of her career total (nine). Her complete list of victims:
Tatiana
Portnova,
Zhenlin
Liu,
Jing Sun and
Yulia
Drukteynite. She owns one other victory by submission (11%) and
four more by decision (44.5%).
29: Rounds completed by Kolesnyk as a professional mixed martial
artist. She has gone the distance on six different occasions and
carries a 4-1 record with one no contest in those bouts.
5: Organizations for which Kolesnyk has plied her MMA trade. In
addition to her 4-3 mark in the PFL, she has gone 3-0 with one no
contest in WBK, 1-0 in Real Fight Promotion, 1-0 in Tech-KREP
Fighting Championship and 0-2 in
Invicta Fighting Championships.
.737: Cumulative winning percentage between the four
opponents—Pacheco (twice),
Taylor
Guardado,
Felicia
Spencer and
Pam
Sorenson—who have defeated Kolesnyk. They sport a combined
record of 42-15.