Melvin Guillard will not compete at BKFC 31 next weekend.
Guillard was originally scheduled to fight Evgeny Kudanov in the upcoming bare knuckle UFC event. However, on Friday the Colorado Office of Combative Sports informed MMA Fighting that Guillard would not be participating.
“Mr. Guillard is not currently licensed by the Colorado Office of Combative Sports and the scheduled Oct. 15 bout will not take place,” a commission official told MMA Fighting in statement.
News of Guillard’s removal from the bout was first reported by MyMMANews.com, citing “safety” reasons.
Messages sent to Guillard and officials at BKFC haven’t been received.
It’s Guillard’s second booking and he was quickly removed from an 2022. BKFC event. The 39-year-old was slated to face Uly Diaz at Knucklemania 2 in February, but the Florida State Athletic Commission, under the jurisdiction of executive director Patrick Cunningham, denied the booking due to “a serious concern” for Guillard’s health.
Guillard lost seven consecutive bouts in a mixed MMA/bare knuckle contest. This includes four stoppages and a disqualification.
Prior to that, Guillard suffered three straight losses to Justin Gaethje, Derek Campos and Brandon Girtz between November 2014 and February 2016, and picked up a knockout win over David Rickels at Bellator 159 in July 2016. However, Guillard tested positive for a non-performance enhancing drug and was subsequently suspended for one year, while his win was overturned to a no-contest.
Guillard lost in the 10 next combat sports bouts, eight by stoppage, including defeats to Takanori Gomi and Israel Adesanya.
In his previous BKFC outing, Guillard was badly knocked out by Joe Riggs at BKFC Fight Night Montana in October and suffered five orbital fractures.
