PFL women’s lightweight Larissa Pacheco believes most of Kayla Harrison’s success is due to marketing.

Since the Judoka burst onto the MMA scene in 2018, she’s been one of the faces of the PFL. Harrison went on to win two PFL women’s lightweight tournaments from that time forward and became one of the hottest names in the sport.

She had heavy interest from Bellator and UFC earlier this year but stuck with the PFL. With her re-signing to the promotion, Harrison has become the favorite for the women’s lightweight tournament. However, a former foe of the Judoka has some words about that.

Larissa Pacheco discussed Kayla Harrison’s rise in an interview with Trocação Franca. The Brazilian blasted the Olympian for being a boring fighter. She also opined that most of Harrison’s success and hype is due to marketing.

The Brazilian is currently hunting for a trilogy fight with the former tournament winner. Pacheco and Harrison have faced off on two occasions, with the latter winning both times.

“Too much marketing, way too much marketing. Most of the time she’s won against inexperienced girls. I think it’s just a lot of marketing because she’s the beauty standard, that standard that all Americans love and the world has to love too because she’s just too good. They deify her way too much, but she’s only a judo fighter. She does perfectly what she’s been doing her entire life, which is judo. We can’t deny that. But, in all other aspects of MMA, MMA being a sport that mixes every martial art, her game is weak.” (h/t MMAFighting)

Larissa Pacheco continued, “She only does one thing. She might do that perfectly, but that’s all she does. Her fights are boring, they are not interesting to watch. The problem is that they have all that marketing over her, deifying this athlete. But I don’t think she’s the world’s best pound for pound. There are athletes who are 1,000 times better than her.”

What do you think about Larissa Pacheco’s comments about Kayla Harrison? Do you agree? Sound off in the comments below!