Rising UFC Lightweight star and former TUF contestant Melvin Guillard was handed an 8 month suspension and was fined almost 1/3 of his total fight purse by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. The disciplinary actions come as a result of Guillard testing positive for cocaine following his bout with Joe Stevenson at UFC Fight Night 9.
Melvin admitted to the commission that he used cocaine “for the first time” less than a week before the bout and he had expected the drugs to be out of his system by the time he was tested. He also made it a point to state that he is not addicted to any drugs, but has used recreationally.
Guillard also said that “I made an honest mistake. I embarrassed myself, and I embarrassed my family.”
I have always had my concerns about Melvin as he seems like a guy with a few character issues (admittedly this is a personal opinion) but I never would have expected him or any other fighter to decide that the week of a fight is a good time to be out partying…let alone decide to do a few lines of coke. However, as the sport grows in popularity athletes will be put in more situations where drugs and other potentially destructive circumstances will be more commonplace. I hope that more fighters decide to make the right choice, because too many of these situations are only going to contribute to the opinion of people like Mike Freeman that the sport is comprised of “thugs.”
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