UFC
WSOF pulls Melvin Guillard from WSOF 20 following harsh interview, claims he didn't send in required medicals
Apr 6, 2015 - 2:50:44 PM WSOF pulls Melvin Guillard from WSOF 20 following harsh interview, claims he didn't send in required medicals

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

The World Series of Fighting has pulled Melvin Guillard from Friday's WSOF 20 event just hours after an interview of his made the rounds where he expressed serious issues with the organization.

Guillard told Submission Radio that he was on the way out the door with the WSOF after taking issue with unfulfilled promises from WSOF matchmaker Ali Abdelaziz. Now, according to comments from WSOF President Ray Sefo to MMAJunkie.com, Guillard is off the card. However, Sefo claims that Guillard's removal comes for other reasons than the brutal comments made in the interview.

"Obviously, we would have liked to have seen Melvin compete at this weekend’s event," Sefo said. "But it's Monday, four days away from the fight, and we don't have his medicals, nor have we heard from him. He has not responded to any of requests from our PR team to help promote the show, and we alerted his management team that if we did not receive his medicals by 10 a.m. today, we would have no choice but to pull him from the card, and unfortunately, that's what we've been forced to do."

Guillard explained his stance on media obligations to the WSOF during the interview, saying that was one of the many issues he had with the organization.

"It's funny, they never answer their phone when I need to talk to them, but yet when they want me to do interviews and they want something from me, they want to try and force me to do it," he said. "So there's a lot of things in the company that I'm not happy about, and I'm the type of person [that] I'm always going to speak my mind, and there's already other places that want to sign me."

Guillard's originally scheduled opponent, Ozzy Dugulubgov, will remain on the card, taking on Lucas Montoya, who had been set to compete on the preliminary card.

Penick's Analysis: If the WSOF has a trail of communication regarding things Guillard was supposed to have done that he didn't do, taking him off Friday's card is a reasonable move. If not, and it's a reaction to the interview, I'd be curious to see if there's any legal recourse from Guillard getting pulled when he was healthy to fight. At any rate, I'd expect him to seek his release from the organization as soon as possible given his previous comments and what seems like a vindictive response from the organization.