The Ultimate Fighting Championship has released Brazilian middleweight Maiquel “Big Rig” Falcão (26-3, 1NC) over legal issues that Falcão is currently involved with back home.
Falcão had been tentatively scheduled to meet “Filthy” Tom Lawlor at the upcoming UFC 134: Silva vs. Okami event in Rio de Janeiro in August, but that bout will no longer take place. No word has surfaced on if Lawlor will be given a new opponent or if he’ll just be pulled from the card entirely.
News of Falcão’s release was posted by Tatame.com late Tuesday night after the website received word from the fighters manager, Marcelo Brigadeiro.
“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…”
“I’m already in talks with other national and international promotions and you will soon watch Maiquel in action again.”