Melvin Guillard’s struggles in the UFC continued on Saturday night as he was defeated by Jamie Varner in their lightweight contest at UFC 155, making it his fourth loss in five fights.

With such a terrible record, there’s every chance the UFC will have had enough of the “Young Assassin” and give him his marching papers.

But that would be unfair on Guillard, who fought admirably in one of the most exciting contests on the card.

Guillard had his moments against an opponent he was originally scheduled to face during the TUF finale on December 15, until an illness to Varner meant the match was postponed to the end-of-year Vegas event.

His frustrated opponent, who finally got to face him on Saturday, had his moments throughout the fight, landing clean shots on Varner’s chin.

However, it was Varner who pushed forward for most of the entire match and earned the decision win. The fact that it was a split decision, with one judge giving a bizarre 30-27 score in favour of Guillard, shouldn’t take away from how dominant Varner ultimately was.

Last night we saw a much more patient Guillard, who so often rushes his fights and is sent back to the dressing room defeated in the first round. But that didn’t seem to do him much good against Varner.

This leaves him in an incredibly precarious position in the UFC’s lightweight roster. After winning five-straight fights between February 2010 and July 2011, Guillard has lost to four top-10 lightweights, including Joe Lauzon and Jim Miller—who fought on the co-main event at UFC 155, and Donald Cerrone.

If he is allowed to stay with the promotion, Guillard is likely to face a bottom-roster contender in the UFC’s stacked lightweight division—perhaps Michael Johnson, who also lost by decision at UFC 155 to Myles Jury, or perhaps Sam Stout, who is coming off a loss to John Makdessi in November.