WSOF Officially Releases UFC Vet Melvin Guillard
After he was recently pulled from his scheduled World Series of Fighting (WSOF) 20 bout with Ozzy Dugulubgov for failing to provide the necessary medicals, longtime UFC competitor Melvin Guillard was on extremely thin ice with the promotion.
So not surprisingly, news came today (Thurs., April 30, 2015) that Guillard has been granted his release from the promotion after requesting it. “The Young Assassin’s” manager Abe Kawa clarified to MMAFighting that the two sides simply couldn’t see eye to eye and mutually agreed to end their business relationship:
“It was a difference of opinion. Melvin had his opinion; they had their opinion. It didn’t work out. Everybody has those times. We asked for his release and they obliged. I’m actually grateful to them. It wasn’t a big deal. It wasn’t a problem. It was two differences of opinions and we didn’t see eye to eye.”
Kawa’s brother Malki Kawa tweeted the announcement, adding that Guillard would soon have a new cage to fight in:
I just received what I asked for from wsof which is the release for @Young__Assassin… Should have a new home for him shortly. #Frm
— malki kawa (@malkikawa) April 30, 2015
Guillard cited a laundry list of problems with WSOF after his failing to make weight for his scheduled WSOF 15 title bout against lightweight champion Justin Gaethje, proclaiming that he had to work a part-time job at a strip club to make ends meet while fighting for them.
WSOF Executive Vice President Ali Abdel-Aziz obviously had a different side of the story, noting to Ariel Helwani that Guillard routinely failed to make weight and was increasingly difficult to deal with:
“The guy never made weight. He was not easy to work with. I wish him the best of luck. I prefer to be friends with him than do business with him. No hard feelings at all.”
Kawa wouldn’t go as far as to say that WSOF necessarily treated him bad, a statement that sounds like the polar opposite of Guillard’s prior gripes:
“They didn’t treat him bad,” Kawa said. “I’m not gonna say they treated him bad. I think they treated Melvin fairly for the most part. In everything they did, they were actually really good. We would tell you otherwise.”
“The Young Assassin” gave the impression that he felt he was underappreciated and mistreated during his time with WSOF, but that seems like a trend after he said essentially said the same thing when he was unceremoniously granted his release from the UFC after a one-sided loss to Michael Johnson last year.
It’s looking more and more like Guillard has gained the moniker of being an entitled veteran whose best days are behind him, and even though Kawa stated that “everybody is asking” about where he’s going to end up, the window of opportunity for the talented but troubled slugger to make a further impact on the sport of MMA is quickly closing.
