While all know about Gerald Harris (19-2; 8KO, 6SUB) his amazing win streak and of course The Slam Heard Round the World he perpetrated against Dave Branch over the summer, what I really want to know more about is this Maiquel Falcao (25-3; 21KO, 3SUB) fellow.
He is coming to us pretty much straight off the boat from Brazil and his first ever US fight will be on the main card of a UFC PPV, that says something right? His record is 25-3 but, and here’s the kicker, 23 of those have been due to first round stoppage. He is riding a 7 fight win streak, all of them by first round stoppage, 6 by form of knockout and 1 by submission. The problem is drawing up a scouting report on the guy when there isn’t much video to go off of. Posted on youtube is a greatest hits video of him devouring his country men and he looks like an absolute beast in it using vicious ground and pound and stand up. He’s shown passing guards without any problem whatsoever but my guess is that doing something like that to Gerald Harris is going to be a whole ‘nother ballgame.
Harris has been a true success story in the UFC thus far. He took part in season 7 of The Ultimate Fighter losing to eventual winner Amir Sadollah but then took fights elsewhere (even winning the Shark Fights middleweight title) for all of 2009 before finally, officially debuting in the UFC in January of this year. He’s had three fights so far inside the Octagon, all of them victories and all of then taking place on the untelevised portion of the card. Then back at UFC 116 he was lucky enough to catch Dave Branch in a very advantageous position and hit a massive bodyslam that probably helped propel him up the ranks. This will be his first shot at the main card and conventional wisdom seems to say that he has been tossed something of a softball.
Everything we’ve seen thus far out of Harris has been extremely impressive and being that the UFC is always looking for Anderson Silva victims one has to wonder how many wins away from a title shot somebody like Harris could be. We’ve seen next to nothing from Falcao and he is a prototypical unknown entity. My guess is Falcao’s offense will get lost in translation and he, in going for a move that would have led him to victory back in the minors, will get caught in Harris’s sticky submission game and forced to tap. But, like so many other fights on this card, the only thing that’s for sure is that nothing is for sure and for all I know we could be welcoming a new Brazilian star to our shores.
Pick: Gerald Harris via 1st Round Submission
