Sherdog is reporting that TUF2 alumnus Melvin Guillard tested positive for cocaine after his Ultimate Fight Night loss to Joe Stevenson Having done a bit of Googling on the topic, unless he's a chronic user, he must've been using in the last 2-4 days before his bout. (Source) Not the brightest thing he could've done, knowing that main event fighters ALWAYS get tested in Nevada Considering he's a fairly high-profile fighter, and the first in Nevada to test positive for coke, look for the NSAC to absolutely crucify him over this, especially in the wake of what they did to Diaz for weed
Is anyone else not surprised by this? He seems like the kind of athlete that populates other sports, he seems to be MMA's Pacman Jones, Ray Lewis, etc... In other words he is the "thug athlete" that does drugs, talks trash, doesn't respect other fighters, thinks he is the best ever.... Probably was using cocaine at a pre-fight party or something
Never liked Melvin...came accross as a muppet both on TUF and afterwards. He definitely has talent though - you don;t see too many KO's from body shots in MMA and his last one was pretty special. Doubt any major MMA organisation will touch him with a 10 foot barge pole now. Steroids and pot are probably forgiveable if not condoneable, cocaine is just stupid.
I dunno, he is exciting and the UFC like that...it will probably be like every other major sport with the talent and ability of an individual determines how much they can get away with. Meaning we will see him in the WEC or the UFC again.
Possibly but I doubt it...they'll be very cagey about anything that can ruin their reputation and there's nothing more damaging than drug scandals (drugs are bad....mmmkay ) Seriously though - they've experienced being almost wiped out by negative public perceptions in the past so they'll do their damndest to prevent anything potentially impacting on their new-found popularity....and I'll bet if that means a few sacrificial lambs along the line then so be it...they've let better fighters go for less
Not surprising.... cocaine is pretty much the drug of choice these days among the affluent... why should fighters be any different. If what I've seen of the cocaine use among fight promoters is anything to go by... the only shocking is that we haven't seen any fighters die of cocaine binges. I've seen more than one fight promoter go absolutely off the rails because of a nose candy binge. I've always wondered how long it'd be till we saw a fighter pull the same thing off. :cry:
I agree with this - I just don't see the UFC keeping him around, or at least putting him within a mile of a show for the next year or so while people forget about this I still somehow think this is going to be irrelevant - I seriously doubt the NSAC are going to play around on this one; they just can't in the wake of what they did to Diaz
Not real surprised. I think you've summed him up well. The only question is how forgiving will they be on this. It seems the type of person you've described generally catches a break. We'll probably see Melvin again but we really didn't see much of him against Joe Stevenson.
I'm not a lawyer and I don't pretend to be one on the internet either, so we're in pretty uncharted waters here , but as I understand it, arrest laws pertain to the actual possession of a controlled substance, rather than retroactive use. I could be completely wrong here, but I've yet to hear of someone being arrested after failing a drug test. Losing their jobs, yes - that's actually happened where I work, but not being arrested for it, unless a locker search turns up some more of the gear or something like that
I guess the only way they could get him is to get a warrant and find something in his house then. Charging someone who has consumed the substance really isn't going to fix the drug problem that's at hand. Taking out the factories and the big suppliers is their main target at this point.
Honestly, considering the recent acquisition of Pride, an ever growing stock of good, marketable LWs(Huerta, Stevenson, etc) and...TUF 5's potential to absolutely rocket the LW division's popularity through the roof, I'd say he's royally boned. Seriously, they were willing to boot Tito(arguably THE most popular guy at the time) over contract disputes when they were still very much a niche sport.
Yes, it is not illegal to actually be under the influence of illegal drugs(from what I understand) unless you are driving, operating motor vehicle etc... Not to mention I doubt the test would stand up in court, government has better things to do etc.... I think Melvin gets sent to the WEC to learn sub defense and some takedown defense and then he will be sent right back up to the big leagues...
They've let better fighters with bigger names go for less. They'd be taking a big publicity risk putting him back on their roster Like BigRed says, it's not like they're hurting for good lightweights and it's not like he was ever going to carry that division. He's quite exciting, but so are a thousand other guys at that weight class and they don't have the stigma that Guillard's going to carry
Ha, he was probably on his come down when Stevenson choked his ass out! Would be nice to hear a statement from him though as i'm really struggling to understand how someone could be so stupid to take coke before a big fight. He knew he would get tested and it doesn;t even stay ion the system long so must have been recent. With Diaz it's more understandable as marijuana stays in the system much longer
Interestingly, the link I posted in the original post states that, unless it's used very regularly, marijuana is out of the system in about a week - either Diaz is a chronic stoner, or he was high a few days at the most before the fight
