Maiquel Falcão | |
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Born | Maiquel José Falcão Gonçalves March 8, 1981 Pelotas, Rio Grande Do Sul, Brazil |
Other names | Big Rig |
Nationality | Brazilian |
Height | 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) |
Weight | 185 lb (84 kg; 13.2 st) |
Division | Middleweight |
Reach | 71.0 in (180 cm) |
Fighting out of | Curitiba, Brazil |
Team | Renovação Fight Team (formerly) Chute Boxe Academy |
Rank | Black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu |
Years active | 2004–present |
Mixed martial arts record | |
Total | 47 |
Wins | 37 |
By knockout | 24 |
By submission | 7 |
By decision | 6 |
Losses | 9 |
By knockout | 6 |
By submission | 3 |
No contests | 1 |
Other information | |
Mixed martial arts record from Sherdog | |
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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, with whom he 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.
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.
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. 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. The rest of the bout was very different, with the third round even seeing a virtual stop to Falcão's attacks. After a strong crowd reaction, the bout ended and Falcão was declared the winner via unanimous decision (29-27, 29-28, 29-28).
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. The bout was heavily criticised and Harris lost his job soon after. 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."