According to a report from Sherdog.com, UFC lightweight Melvin Guillard (22-7-2 MMA, 4-3 UFC) was arrested last month in Houston for violating probation on a 2007 drug charge. This arrest has emerged as the likely motivation behind Guillard’s recent removal from the UFC 90 card (see: Shannon Gugerty to replace Melvin Guillard at UFC 90).

From the report:

[Guillard] is in custody at the Harris County jail in Houston, the deputy said last Thursday, and will be released to a drug treatment facility as soon as space becomes available per the terms of his recently amended probation.

Details of the violation were not readily available.

After back-to-back UFC losses and serving an eight-month suspension for a failed April 2007 drug test (see: Melvin Guillard Tests Positive for Cocaine), Guillard left the UFC to gain additional experience before returning to fight at UFC 86. There, he won “Knockout of the Night” for his 36-second demolition of European fighter Dennis Siver. When discussing that bout with MMAjunkie.com Radio Partner TAGG Radio (see: An older, wiser Melvin Guillard), Guillard also discussed “new outlook on life,” indicating that he felt he’d turned his life around, saying that the embarrassment from the failed drug test caused his family forced him to choose a different path.

“I got busted, but I don’t care about the media and all that,” Guillard said. “I care more about hurting my family. I embarrassed my mom. My dad, he passed away a year and a half ago, but if he was here, he would have been upset, too. … I felt bad because I embarrassed my mother and my church members.”

“I didn’t straighten up because of all the bad talk. I straightened up because it was the right thing to do.”  Guillard went on to say “(But now) I’m sober. I’m not hanging out or partying. I’m just training.”