Melvin Guillard will not compete at BKFC 31 next weekend.
Guillard, a longtime UFC competitor, was scheduled to face Evgeny Kurdanov at the upcoming bare knuckle event in Broomfield, Colo., but on Friday, the Colorado Office of Combative Sports confirmed to MMA Fighting that Guillard will not be competing.
“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 to BKFC officials and Guillard’s management team have not been returned.
It’s the second time Guillard has been booked and quickly removed from a BKFC event in 2022. 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 has lost seven straight bouts in a mix of MMA and bare knuckle competition, which includes four stoppages, a disqualification, an injury stoppage, and a unanimous decision loss.
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 suffered losses in his next 10 combat sports bouts — eight via stoppage — including knockout losses to Israel Adesanya and Takanori Gomi.
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.