diff --git a/openapi_core/contrib/falcon/requests.py b/openapi_core/contrib/falcon/requests.py
index e48b4fa..2e88ff1 100644
--- a/openapi_core/contrib/falcon/requests.py
+++ b/openapi_core/contrib/falcon/requests.py
@@ -11,19 +11,24 @@ from openapi_core.validation.request.datatypes import (
 class FalconOpenAPIRequestFactory:
 
     @classmethod
-    def create(cls, request):
+    def create(cls, request, default_when_empty={}):
         """
         Create OpenAPIRequest from falcon Request and route params.
         """
+        default = default_when_empty
         method = request.method.lower()
 
         # gets deduced by path finder against spec
         path = {}
 
-        # Support falcon-jsonify.
+        # in falcon 3 we must hadle empty media or an exception will be raised
+        if hasattr(request, "get_media"):
+            media = request.get_media(default_when_empty=default)
+        else:
+            media = request.media if request.media else default
+        # # Support falcon-jsonify.
         body = (
-            dumps(request.json) if getattr(request, "json", None)
-            else dumps(request.media)
+            dumps(getattr(request, "json", media))
         )
         mimetype = request.options.default_media_type
         if request.content_type:
diff --git a/tests/integration/contrib/falcon/conftest.py b/tests/integration/contrib/falcon/conftest.py
index 60ac8d6..5ad0503 100644
--- a/tests/integration/contrib/falcon/conftest.py
+++ b/tests/integration/contrib/falcon/conftest.py
@@ -33,7 +33,6 @@ def request_factory(environ_factory, router):
         options = RequestOptions()
         # return create_req(options=options, **environ)
         req = Request(environ, options)
-        resource, method_map, params, req.uri_template = router.find(path, req)
         return req
     return create_request