David Feldman understands the Florida Athletic Commission’s decision to deny Melvin Guillard a fight license, but doesn’t like its reasoning.
The FAC and executive director Patrick Cunningham denied BKFC’s bout proposal for a Feb. 19 matchup between Guillard and Ulysses Diaz due to “serious health concern,” according to a news release issued by the Association of Boxing Commissions (ABC).
Guillard is winless in his past 14 combat sports bouts with nine knockout losses in that stretch. The 38-year-old ex-UFC fighter is coming off a 59-second knockout loss to Joe Riggs in which he suffered facial fractures that required surgery. But BKFC boss Feldman thinks the commission’s decision was more to do with Guillard’s skid than his actual performances.
“I respect the Florida State Athletic Commission. They’ve always been great to me, and they always do a fine job, so I’m going to support whatever decision they make,” Feldman told MMA Junkie. “But on the other hand, they just look at, ‘Look, he lost this many fights in a row,’ but not his last fight. But the fight before that, he lost in a disqualification when he knocked somebody out. So they’re not looking at really how he performed. Is he advanced in his career? Yes. Is he not the same Melvin Guillard? Yeah, he’s not. But this is different also. It’s different.
“That’s why Chad Mendes is coming over here when everyone thought he was retired because although he has to train very, very hard, and it’s brutal on a different level, it’s not as hard on your body in the training that you have to go through to prepare for this fight. It’s not as hard on your whole body, and the same thing goes for Melvin Guillard. Like I said, he always comes to fight. If he was cleared medically and if he is cleared medically now because he might be now, we welcome him. But at the end of the day, I’ll never stand against a commission like the Florida State Commission, who has always given me every shot in the world, and they’re fair. So if they make a decision, I support that decision 100 percent.”
Feldman thinks Guillard’s matchup with Diaz was a great one on paper but has no intention of fighting the commission’s decision.
“That was a great fight – him vs. Ulysses I thought was going to be a very competitive fight. But at the end of the day, we’ll just stand back and see what happens,” Feldman said. “We’re not going to take a stand here against the commission by any means. If it’s something that we thought was a no brainer on, then we take a stand against it. But this is something that they’re making the decision to protect the welfare of Melvin and obviously to protect themselves and to protect their reputation, and I’m going to support them on that.”
