The 40-year-old athlete was found lying on a street and died on the way to the hospital in his hometown.
One-time UFC fighter and three-time Bellator MMA competitor Maiquel Falcao has died in in his hometown of Pelotas, Brazil.
According to local news outlet GZH, the 40-year-old was found lying on a street with two stab wounds in his stomach, in a front of a bar around 3 AM on Sunday. Although ‘Big Rig’ was taken to the hospital, he succumbed to the injuries shortly afterwards.
The local police are investigating the case, but so far no other follow-ups to Maiquel’s death have been announced.
Falcao made only one UFC appearance in his career, at UFC 123, when he defeated Gerald Harris via unanimous decision, back in November 2010. After that, the Brazilian competed in several other notable promotions, including Bellator, KSW and Fight Nights Global, among others.
Maiquel’s last outing happened in December 2019, when he was submitted by Sergey Romanov, at Krepost Fighting Championship. The Brazilian’s last win was a TKO victory over ex-UFC fighter Igor Pokrajac, in May of the same year, at Serbian Battle Championship 21.
During his 15-year career Falcao fought many well-known names across middleweight, light heavyweight and heavyweight. Among those are UFC veteran Fabio Maldonado, former KSW champ Mamed Khalidov, and former Bellator champion Alexander Shlemenko.
In an unrelated event, back in 2013, Falcao was also involved in a gas station altercation, where he assaulted a woman and knocked a man to the ground. Falcao tried to flee the scene, but got involved in a fight with more men who gave chase. This skirmish ended up in Falcao being expelled from his team, Renovacao Fight Team, and in his Bellator release.
Falcao is survived by his wife, Natalia, and their son.