Maiquel Falcão defeats Gerald Harris in his UFC debut
Maiquel Falcão dominated the first two rounds of his fight with Gerald Harris at Ultimate Fighting Championships event 123 over the weekend. He then coasted through the third round for
the win, much to the chagrin of the crowd at the Palace of Auburn Hills.
Falcão, fighting out of Brazil’s Chute Boxe Academy was making his UFC debut, after signing a four fight contract with the promotion earlier this year. He brought a mixed martial arts
record of 26-3 into his fight with Harris, winning 21 of his fights by knockout.
Harris came into the fight on a 10 fight winning streak and sporting an overall MMA record of 17-2. Harris’ last fight was a knockout via a brutal slam at UFC 116 in July of this year.
Harris’ slam of David Branch earned him the “Knockout of the Night” bonus on that fight card.
This fight started out very slowly and the crowd began booing early on, letting the fighters know that they did not appreciate the lack of action. Falcão seemed very relaxed and patient
in his UFC debut, waiting for Harris to engage and possibly make a mistake. With 1:30 left in the round Falcão took advantage of Harris’ forward leaning posture and unleashed a flurry of quick punches and followed that with a knee to the body that dropped
Harris to the ground. Falcão fired more quick punches with Harris propped against the cage. With 20 seconds left in the round Harris got to his feet and slammed Falcão to his back. The slam did not cause Falcão to let go of Harris and he quickly took Harris’
back and sank a choke in with 10 seconds left in the first round. Falcão was a little slow in releasing the choke when the bell sounded and earned a rebuke from the referee for that tactic.
Falcão wasted no time taking Harris down with some heavy hands at the start of round two. Falcão took Harris’ back and worked a choke, but he could not get his arm under Harris’ chin.
Harris got back to his feet and was looking very tired as he worked a single leg takedown. Falcão worked a good takedown defence, but Harris was able to lift Falcão and slam him, but he could not keep Falcão down and the fighters again squared off on their
feet. Falcão then delivered a kick to the head of Harris. After taking the kick, Harris dropped down and again worked a single leg takedown to no avail. As the bell sounded for round two a very tired Harris made his way back to his corner.
The third round was maybe one of the most boring rounds in the history of the UFC. Harris was gassed and he could not sustain any offence. For his part, Falcão avoided any action and looked
like he was just stalling for the win.
The judges gave the fight to Falcão by unanimous decision.
After the fight, UFC President Dana White had some words for both the fighters and the referee. "Dan Miragliotta is a super nice guy, but you don't just let two guys stare at each other.
You start warning, ‘Fight!’ and then you start taking away points,” White said to Heavy MMA. “The referee is in there for the safety of the fighters to enforce the rules and regulations. And one of the rules and regulations is when guys aren't fighting you
make them f**king fight."
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