Larissa Pacheco on helping Amanda Nunes train for Kayla Harrison: ‘It’s going to be insane’

Amanda Nunes entered the octagon in June to face off with Kayla Harrison, setting up a megafight for her return from retirement in 2026 following Harrison’s title-winning submission at UFC 316. Not only that, “The Lioness” invited Larissa Pacheco — the only woman to beat Harrison in MMA — to be part of her next training camp.

The UFC has yet to announce a date for the planned championship collision, but Pacheco said Nunes is ready to enter the cage as soon as next week.

“What I can say is that if the UFC wants to book this fight next week or next month for Amanda, she’s ready,” Pacheco told MMA Fighting. “She’s ready. In terms of adjustments, everything, there’s nothing more to say. I’m not going to talk strategy because I can’t, but she’s ready, man. What I’ve felt from her… I can say this: I’ve felt Kayla’s energy before, and now I’ve felt Amanda’s. She’s ready. That fight is hers, without a doubt. She’s walking out with the win.”

Pacheco fought Harrison three times inside the PFL cage. The first two bouts took place in 2019, with Harrison winning both via decision to end that year as PFL champion and 7-0 in the sport. They would meet for a third time in November 2022, and Pacheco walked away with the decision victory — and the PFL belt.

Nunes and Harrison were part of the same team in the past, training together occasionally at American Top Team in Florida, and Pacheco believes she adds important knowledge to Nunes’ camp.

“I’ve felt Kayla inside the cage,” Pacheco said. “Amanda has trained with Kayla at the gym, but I’ve been in that place where the pressure is highest, which is inside the octagon. So… man, it’s going to be insane. It’s going to be incredible.”

Nunes retired from MMA after beating Irene Aldana in June 2023, walking away as two-division UFC queen. Harrison made her promotional debut almost a year later, going 3-0 against Holly Holm, Ketlen Vieira, and Julianna Peña to be crowned bantamweight champion.

“She never really lost that throne. Her hunger is to win,” Pacheco said of Nunes. “She didn’t have a real challenge left, one that matched her level. She beat everyone. When she retired, it was at a time when she didn’t have a true challenge anymore. It felt like, ‘I’m doing this just for the money.’ At least that’s how I see it; it’s not something she told me directly.

“But since there’s something personal between them, it adds a different flavor, right? And now Kayla is the champion of the promotion. She said in several interviews that she wanted to be UFC champion, that she wanted to fight Amanda, that she wanted to get there, and now she’s there. Didn’t she want this to happen so badly? Didn’t she ask for it so much? This is the moment.”

“I don’t think there’s a better time for Amanda to come back than now, than this,” she continued. “And to do it in this way, showing not only who she is — that she doesn’t have to prove anything to anyone —, but doing it against someone who truly is a challenge worthy of her.”