Maiquel Falcão: Gerald Harris tapped, three different times
Erik Engelhart: Did everything go like you had planned for your debut on UFC? Maiquel Falcão: The most important thing was…
Erik Engelhart: Did everything go like you had planned for your debut on UFC?
Maiquel Falcão: The most important thing was my victory, but according to the game plan we’ve set, which was to hit so I could keep myself standing, I thought it was a good fight, despite I know I could’ve hit him more. I trained wrestling a lot to defend the takedowns and thanks God I was successful, here at Chute Boxe we are well assisted on wrestling and I have some experience on the modality, I’ve been joining some competitions.
EE: Did the fact that the referee did a huge mistake on the first round, finishing the fight before the regular time, disturbed you?
MF: It didn’t disturbed me because he (Gerald) said many stupid things to me, said he’d beat me easily, so I kind of liked it so I could punish him even more and I could make his suffering last longer.
EE: Did he tap out?
MF: 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.
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Dana White largely concurs
“There were a couple of times there where Gerald looked like he was tapping,” White said. “When guys get in those chokes and they do that half-tap thing, you hold that choke until the ref pulls you off or until the guy is out.
“I don’t think he held the choke too long. We’ve seen cases in the past where the choke is definitely being held too long. This kid was in a nasty scrap, and Gerald Harris was doing these weird grabbing-the-hand motions. We were sitting there cageside going, ‘Did he just tap?’ Then you have to wait for the replay to see if they tap.”
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Falcão himself has a record of unfortunate cage behavior, including this early fight, where an unconscious opponent is beaten like a rented mule.