When Larissa Pacheco throws her first punch on Friday, she will be aiming at two opponents.
The recipient of her heavy leather inside the cage will be Olena Kolesnyk, as part of a PFL fight card at The Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City featuring heavyweight and women’s featherweight semifinals (main card on ESPN and ESPN+ at 9 p.m. ET, prelims on ESPN at 7).
The other adversary perpetually bobbing and weaving in front of Pacheco: the ghost of Kayla Harrison.
Harrison is very much alive, of course, but her flesh and blood have been nowhere to be seen in 2023. The two-time PFL women’s lightweight champion has moved on from season competition to the company’s ambitious pay-per-view Super Fight division. The new enterprise was announced earlier this year but has not yet launched. As a result, Harrison has been sitting idly on the sideline all year, waiting for a fight.
Pacheco, meanwhile, has replaced her as the PFL’s most dominant force — man or woman.
In her two fights during the regular season, Pacheco was a steamroller. She is competing at featherweight now, because the PFL did away with its 155-pound division after she upset Harrison to win the championship last November. So Pacheco cut the extra…
