Maiquel Falcão

Falcão married a Ukrainian woman named Nataliia Tandarina in Kiev on January 10, 2020. In the early hours of 23 January 2022, Falcão was stabbed outside of a bar in his hometown of Pelotas, Brazil. He was rushed to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead, at the age of 40.

Falcao dropped a rematch with Mineev on 21 April 2017, at Fight Nights Global 63 via first-round TKO.

Falcao faced Ayub Gimbatov on 4 November 2017 at Fight Nights Global 78. He lost the fight via TKO in the first round.

Falcao was scheduled to face fellow Bellator veteran Emiliano Sordi on 18 November 2017 for the Arena Tour Light Heavyweight Championship, but the bout was cancelled.

Falcão faced M-1 Global Middleweight Champion Ramazan Emeev on 4 April 2016, at M-1 Grand Prix 2016. He lost the fight via submission.

Falcão defeated Vladimir Mineev on 9 December 2016, at Fight Nights Global 56.

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

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

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

On 25 July 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).

In July 2013, Falcão and a fellow MMA fighter Kauê Mena became involved in a struggle inside a gas station's convenience store in Balneário Camboriú, Santa Catarina after Falcão assaulted a female customer. Moments after striking the alleged assault victim, a relative of the victim came into the store and attempted to punch Falcão, missing, and Falcão knocked him to the ground.

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 20 April at Bellator 66. 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. 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 25 April 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. The two men met at Bellator 88 on 7 February 2013, for the vacant title. After a back and forth fight, Shlemenko won via knockout in the second round.

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

Falcão was expected to face Tom Lawlor on 27 August 2011, at UFC 134. However, the UFC abruptly released him on 11 May. 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. 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."

Falcão's first fight after his release was against fellow Brazilian Julio Cesar Bilik at Centurion MMA 2 on 9 July 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. Falcão faced Dibir Zagirov at Oplot Challenge 100 on 15 February 2014. He won via guillotine choke.

On 20 November 2010, Falcão made his UFC debut at UFC 123, beating Gerald Harris by a controversial unanimous decision. The bout was controversial for multiple reasons. First, after dominating the opening round, Falcão sank in a rear-naked choke. However, the round buzzer went off at least five seconds early. This was arguably costly for Falcão, as Dana White speculated that had the round expired at the correct time, Harris would have succumbed to the submission. Falcão's initial momentum waned, with the third round seeing a virtual stop to his attacks. After a strong crowd reaction, the bout ended with Falcão winning via unanimous decision (29-27, 29–28, 29–28).

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.

Maiquel José Falcão Gonçalves (8 March 1981 – 23 January 2022) was a Brazilian professional mixed martial artist who competed in the Light Heavyweight division. A professional competitor since 2004, Falcão was perhaps best known for his stint in Bellator, winning the Season Six Middleweight Tournament; he also fought for the UFC, KSW, Fight Nights Global, and M-1 Global.