Was Maiquel Falcao Robbed of a Finish? Falcao Says Harris Tapped, Round 1 Under Investigation

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. ufc 123: “Rampage vs. Machida” saw the potential debut of another Middleweight wrecking machine… for the first ten minutes of a fifteen-minute fight. The other five minutes saw Chute Box fighter Maiquel Falcao do his best Kalib Starnes impersonation against the recently-released Gerald Harris. Recently, it’s been reported that a timekeeping error may have caused the pivotal first round, which ended with Harris firmly caught in a Rear Naked Choke, to end too early. And Falcao himself has recently stated that Harris tapped out several times during the bout. Here are all the details.

First we heard to Tatame, where Falcao recently said the following: “(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… He tapped out in three different occasions, hiding it… 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.”

Next we head to MMA Weekly, which reports that the Michigan Bureau of Commercial Services has launched an investigation into a timekeeping error for the first round of the Falcao/Harris fight. This comes after a report surfaced at Cagewriter.com, with an including video showing an early stoppage of approximately seven seconds. It’s unknown how this investigation will affect the fighters involved, since Falcao would go on to outpoint Harris and win the fight via decision.

As many have pointed out, seven seconds can be an eternity when you’ve got a tight choke locked on. Harris was saved by the bell in the most literal sense of the term. While we’ll never know if Harris could have survived those additional seconds, I personally think that the added time would have resulted in Harris either tapping out or being choked unconscious. The choke was firmly applied, Falcao had both of his hooks in, and Harris seemed to be fading fast. All signs pointed towards Harris either tapping out or blacking out.

I think the most unfortunate thing about this first-round controversy was the fact that it so negatively impacted Falcao’s performance in the final round. Judging by this controversy and Falcao’s recent interview, it appears that a mix of complacency as well as anger at being robbed of a decisive win convinced Falcao to play it safe in Round 3, which of course gave us the most boring five minutes of the entire night of fights. I think Falcao’s position in the UFC right now would be entirely different if he had secured the first round submission.

It’s true that we’ll never know; that this will all be filed away in some “what could have been” section. But to be completely honest, I’m beginning to have more sympathy for Falcao than I did back when there was no controversy. I don’t think I’ll ever fully agree with him choosing to outright abandon the fight in the third round and just coast to a victory, but as this mini-saga continues to unfold, perhaps I’ll begin to more fully understand why Falcao chose to do what he did.

And what about you, fans and friends? What do you have to say regarding Falcao’s recent comments and the fact that the first round may have been stopped early?