{"id":38760,"date":"2026-06-12T04:56:43","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T04:56:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/news\/news\/PFL-newcomer-Elisandra-Ferreira-embracing-underdog-role-in-Nigeria-201500"},"modified":"2026-06-12T04:56:43","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T04:56:43","slug":"pfl-newcomer-elisandra-ferreira-embracing-underdog-role-in-nigeria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/pfl-newcomer-elisandra-ferreira-embracing-underdog-role-in-nigeria\/","title":{"rendered":"PFL newcomer Elisandra Ferreira embracing underdog role in Nigeria"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/div>\n

Elisandra
\nFerreira<\/a> enjoys proving the doubters wrong. The diminutive
\nBrazilian, a former
\nInvicta Fighting Championships<\/a> atomweight queen, makes her
\n
\nProfessional Fighters League<\/a> debut Saturday in Lagos,
\nNigeria.<\/p>\n

Early on, due to a relatively late start in mixed martial arts,
\n\u201cLili\u201d fought her first professional bout on a wing and a prayer. A
\ntechnical knockout win reinforced the idea that, despite still
\nhaving much to learn, this was going to be her chosen path.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never been one to turn down a fight. I wanted to see how it
\nwould go,\u201d she shared in her native Portuguese.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had competed in muay thai and jiu-jitsu, separately. I lost two
\nbouts as an amateur, but it wasn’t a bad thing. It was more of a
\nwakeup call. I now knew I wanted to pursue this, and that I needed
\nto improve. I wished I had had more fights as an amateur, but age
\ncounts for a lot in MMA. When the opportunity came for me to fight
\nas a pro, now that I was training seriously, we decided to go for
\nit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Few people encouraged her commitment to combat sports.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was mostly folks from our academy who’d say I should fight. As
\nfar as family, no one supported me in that. Even today, there are
\nvery few in my family who support it. I carved my own path because
\nof how much I wanted this. I saw the challenge. I knew I could do
\nit. And I understood I\u2019d have to improve every day, whether I won
\nor lost. Today, I work with [former PFL tournament champion]\nLarissa
\nPacheco<\/a>, coach Marcelo
\nBispo<\/a> and [BJJ champion] Livia Felix<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Besides capturing and defending the Invicta FC belt, Ferreira sees
\nother key moments in her pro career as contributing to her place in
\nthe PFL.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think all my fights were important. Of course, there are some
\nthat weigh a bit more because of a belt, like Invicta, Nacao Cyborg
\n[Cris
\nCyborg<\/a>\u2019s promotion] and Karate Combat. But every fight is the
\nfight of my life, another step in making my dreams come true.
\nDefeats were also very important to me. Those fights allowed me to
\ngrow professionally and as a person, too. They changed my point of
\nview. In the end, they gave me the motivation to change some things
\nand keep improving.\u201d<\/p>\n

She originally planned to keep fighting at Invicta, but the
\npromotion hasn\u2019t put on an event since May of 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a contract with Invicta. My contract was completed after my
\ntitle defense. But I was planning to move up in weight. I had asked
\nInvicta to fight at strawweight next, but they stopped having
\ncards. Within a week, I received a call to fight at Karate Combat.
\nIt was an excellent opportunity to stay active and for visibility.
\nWe were looking around for MMA opportunities. Another big promotion
\ndidn\u2019t seem interested in me. That\u2019s when my manager said I was
\nhired by the PFL. It\u2019s a gigantic opportunity, a door that opened
\nwhich I plan to hold onto with both hands.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ferreira\u2019s next opponent is undefeated fighter Juliet
\nUkah<\/a>, who will have home advantage in Lagos. Ferreira is
\nconfident she has Ukah\u2019s number.<\/p>\n

\u201cI only saw two of her videos. I left things up to my trainers
\nMarcelo Bispo and Larissa Pacheco. We sat down and talked about
\nwhat she does in every fight, how she wins, and how to beat her. We
\nfocused on countering her attacks, and on the fact that she\u2019s
\ntaller. People think I\u2019m too small. But it\u2019s a tremendous advantage
\nfor me. I\u2019ll show that when I knock her out.\u201d<\/p>\n

One interesting hiccup is the fact that the PFL Nigeria takes place
\nexactly as Brazil debuts against Morocco in the 2026 FIFA World
\nSoccer Cup. Ferreira hopes to make the best of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe my fight will be before the game. I\u2019m looking forward to
\ncelebrating my first PFL win, followed by us, Brazil, winning
\nanother one.\u201d<\/p>\n

One more unexpected factor during fight night may be the fans in
\nattendance. Ferreira suspects that some cultural differences may be
\nat play, maybe machismo, maybe a lack of familiarity with the
\nsport.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it’s important to say that, from what I can tell, people
\nin Nigeria don’t like to see women fighting. We\u2019re here to change
\nthat. We can show that we have the necessary strength. Women have
\nchildren. We feel a pain that no one else understands. So why can\u2019t
\nwe fight, same as men? Plus, everyone keeps bringing up the fact
\nthat I\u2019m small. People think that\u2019s a problem, but I\u2019ll prove them
\nwrong by having my hand raised in the end. I\u2019m small but I have KO
\npower. There are two women\u2019s fights on the card and I\u2019m confident
\nthey\u2019ll be the best fights of the night. Women\u2019s fights are
\nsomething else! We\u2019re all heart and aggression.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Elisandra Ferreira enjoys proving the doubters wrong. The diminutive Brazilian, a former Invicta Fighting Championships atomweight queen, makes her Professional Fighters League debut Saturday in Lagos, Nigeria. Early on, due to a relatively late start in mixed martial arts, \u201cLili\u201d fought her first professional bout on a wing and a prayer. A technical knockout win […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38761,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-martial-arts-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38760\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}