Maiquel Falcao Released from the UFC; Bout with Tom Lawlor Off for UFC 134

It was a short run for Maiquel Falcao Goncalves in the UFC and it’s come to an end.

The Brazilian fighter who had already been signed to face Tom Lawlor at UFC 134 in his home country has now been released from the promotion following a list of legal troubles.

His manager Marcelo Brigadeiro made the announcement in a letter to Tatame.com late Tuesday night.

We’ve received an e-mail from Joe Silva yesterday saying that the UFC decided to end Maiquel Falcão’s contract. They decided to do that because of some legal problems Maiquel got involved recently.

I decided to communicate you because of the respect we have with Maiquel’s fans. I always worked in a honest and clear way about everything, and wouldn’t act that way in this situation.

This news got us by surprise and let us very shocked, mainly after we signed to fight at UFC Rio. Anyway, we’re very grateful for everything the UFC have done for Maiquel and we believe we go out in a good way.

Besides the sadness, we respect UFC’s decision and hope to return to the biggest event on the planet soon. I think this type of thing happen to make us think about a lot of things, to learn and move on, and you can be sure that Maiquel Falcão will move on.

I’m already in talks with other national and international promotions and you will soon watch Maiquel in action again.

Thanks for all of you that followed and cheered for Falcão at his short career at the Ultimate Fighting Championship.



Falcao had been involved in an arrest in Brazil based on an incident back in 2002, and was placed on probation at that time. He hadn’t appeared in the UFC since his initial bout at UFC 123 in November 2010.

There’s been no word if Lawlor will remain on the UFC 134 card or not.