Maiquel Falcão

Maiquel José Falcão Gonçalves (born March 8, 1981) is a Brazilian professional mixed martial artist who is perhaps best known for his stint in Bellator MMA, and won the Bellator Season Six Middleweight Tournament. A professional competitor since 2004, Falcão has also had a one-fight stint with the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

Mixed martial arts career

Early career

Falcão compiled a record of 25-3 (1) with 21 of his wins coming by way of knockout, fighting exclusively in his native Brazil with two of the losses being at the hands of current UFC Light Heavyweight Fábio Maldonado.

Ultimate Fighting Championship

On November 20, 2010, Falcão won his UFC debut at UFC 123 against Gerald Harris by unanimous decision. The bout was controversial for multiple reasons. The first case of controversy occurred at the end of the opening round. After dominating the opening round, Falcão sunk in a rear-naked choke. However, the buzzer to signal the end of the round clearly went off at least five or six seconds before the round had actually ended.^[1] The incident was arguably costly for Falcão, as Dana White believed that had the round expired at the correct time, that Harris would have succumbed to the submission.^[2] The rest of the bout was very different, with the third round even seeing a virtual stop to Falcão's attacks.^[3] After a strong crowd reaction, the bout ended and Falcão was declared the winner via unanimous decision (29-27, 29-28, 29-28).^[4]

Following the fight and criticism from Dana White, Falcão stated that the reason for the lack of action in the third round was that he was waiting for Harris to attack, so he could counter, but that was not the case.^[3] The bout was heavily criticised and Harris lost his job soon after.^[5] Falcão also said afterwards: "He tapped out in three different occasions, hiding it. It was a new thing for me, it was the first time I got three wins on the same bout. On the first round, he tapped out the first time when he was on the four points position, then he tapped out again in the end of the first round, when I got him on the rear-naked choke with his body turned up, and on the third round he tapped out again on a rear-naked choke."^[6]

Just days later, Falcão was arrested in Brazil for assaulting a woman outside a nightclub back in 2002. In 2002 Falcão had been sentenced to 24 months in prison, but following 8 months of the sentence he moved to house arrest on the assurance from his lawyer.^[7]

Falcão was expected to return at UFC Live: Sanchez vs. Kampmann against Alessio Sakara.^[8] However, in January 2011, he pulled out of the fight due to injury.^[9]

Falcão was expected to face Tom Lawlor on August 27, 2011 at UFC 134.^[10] However, the UFC abruptly released him on May 11. According to one of Falcão's agents, the move came after fans and media bombarded the UFC with demands that he be removed from the UFC 134 card.^[11] In 2013, UFC president Dana White confirmed that he'd cut Falcão two years earlier because the UFC has zero tolerance for assault on women. He said, "Sexual assault, hitting a woman or anything like that, you're gone from the roster. It doesn't matter if you're a winner or a champion or anything like that. You're gone. Keep your hands off women."^[12]

Post-UFC

Falcão's first fight after his release was against fellow Brazilian Julio Cesar Bilik at Centurion MMA 2 on July 9, 2011. Falcão dropped Bilik early on with a clean punch then pouncing on him with a barrage of punches before the referee eventually stepped in to stop the fight giving Falcão the TKO win after just 27 seconds.^[13] Falcão faced Dibir Zagirov at Oplot Challenge 100 on February 15, 2014. He won via guillotine choke.^[14]

Bellator

In early 2012, Falcão joined the Bellator Season Six Middleweight Tournament. He faced Norman Paraisy in the opening round at Bellator 61 and dominated the fight by using his superior striking and scoring multiple takedowns, Falcão won via unanimous decision. In the semifinals round, Maiquel faced Vyacheslav Vasilevsky on April 20 at Bellator 66^[15] He won the fight via unanimous decision. Falcão then faced Andreas Spang in the finals at Bellator 69. After his win over Vasilevsky, Falcão was involved in a post-fight scuffle with Spang, who was brought into the cage to do a face-off with Falcão for the first time after Spang's fight. When they moved in close to each other, Spang immediately shoved Falcão. Startled by this, the much publicized temperament of Falcão rushed back at him with a knee to the ribcage and then lifted up his hand as if looking to throw a punch. Officials, Bellator commentator/former fighter Jimmy Smith and fight matchmaker Sam Caplan separated the two from one another.^[16] After getting rocked in the first round, Falcão opted for a more conservative approach by using his wrestling to grind out Spang and he won via unanimous decision.

On April 25, 2012, Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney announced that Falcão, the winner of the Season Six Middleweight Tournament, would face Alexander Shlemenko to crown the company's new Middleweight Champion.^[17] The two men met at Bellator 88 on February 7, 2013 for the vacant title. After a back and forth fight, Shlemenko won via knockout in the second round.

On July 25, 2013 Bellator released Falcão due to ongoing legal battles in his home country of Brazil. The last straw was a violent brawl outside a gas station (see below).^[18]

Post-Bellator

After a year away from the sport, Falcão returned and faced Dibir Zagirov at Oplot Challenge 100 on February 15, 2014. Falcão won via submission in the second round.^[19]

Falcão then faced top Polish prospect Mamed Khalidov at KSW 27 on May 17, 2014. Falcão lost the bout via armbar submission in the later stages of round 1.^[20]

In a rematch from their Bellator 66 bout, Falcão faced Vyacheslav Vasilevsky at Plotforma S-70 5 on August 9, 2014. Falcão would lose via TKO at 0:37 in the first round.

Gas station altercation

In July 2013, Falcão and a fellow mixed martial artist Kauê Mena, an undefeated Featherweight prospect, got involved in a struggle inside a gas station's convenience store in Balneário Camboriú, Santa Catarina. Falcão grazed his wallet at a woman and started a fight with her friends inside the store, who outnumbered Falcão and Mena. Falcão was struck in the face to start the fighting and exchanged punches with the man, who Falcão then knocked down. The struggle continued outside where Falcão can be seen standing beside Mena facing up to 3 or 4 men whilst another hits Mena from behind with a piece of wood, knocking him out. Falcão is at the same time kicked backwards and staggers before receiving strikes with the makeshift weapon. During this Mena is punched and kicked on the ground while unconscious. Mena was in serious condition at an intensive care unit and Falcão had only minor injuries.^[21]

A few days after the struggle, Renovação Fight Team coach Marcelo Brigadeiro expelled Falcão and Mena from the team.^[22][23] The fight also led to his release from Bellator.^[18]

In an interview after the incident, Falcão claimed that the two fighters had come to the gas station from a bar to purchase more alcohol. While inside, Falcão claims that the woman thought he was making sexual advances towards her, and responding by directing racial slurs at the former UFC Middleweight. Falcão later apologized to Mena's family as well as the MMA community.^[24]

Personal life

Falcão is married.^[25]

Mixed martial arts record

References

External links

• UFC Profile
• Professional MMA record for Maiquel Falcão from Sherdog