Shine To Go Unsanctioned

Shine Fight Promotions is a small mma organization, founded in 2009. They held two successful events last year and have been looked at as a decent place for a fighter to earn a paycheque.

They have recently had a run of bad luck though, and it’s difficult to say if they are deserving of the negative press heading their way because of it.

Scheduled for May 15, 2010, Shine Fights 3: Worlds Collide was to be their marquee presentation. The main event, pitting former UFC standout Din Thomas against former WBA/WBC champion Ricardo Mayorga, would prove once and for all whether boxers were better than mma fighters.

The event was embroiled in controversy from the start. The two fighters almost came to blows at the press conference announcing the fight.

Shortly after the announcement of the fight, Don King came forward, claiming that Mayorga could not fight for any other promotion, as he was under contract to Don King Promotions. Shine disagreed, saying that contract covered only boxing and not mma. King took them to court and a judge sided with the troll-haired one, granting an injunction against Shine only hours before the fight was to take place.

Shine decided to proceed with the event, without the main card in place. But the North Carolina Boxing Authority, which had sanctioned the event, cancelled the whole thing outright, because Shine had failed to post a bond to cover fighter purses. Shine CEO Devin Price claimed the money was with him, in Florida where he was in court fighting the injunction, and he was unable to get it to North Carolina in time.

Shine would not let this cancellation deter them. They soldiered on. They paid all the fighters on the card a percentage of their purses, despite the fact they never fought. At least, they claimed to have done so. While Thomas agrees with this claim, many fighters claim they weren’t paid at all.

In the meantime, Shine got busy putting together another event. The new Shine Fights 3 would be a lightweight grand prix – a one night tournament, where the finalists would compete three times in one night, in shortened matches. It was booked for Fairfax, Virginia and, according to Price, he was given verbal approval for the event 32 days prior to the September 10 date.

However, with only seven days remaining before the big day, the Virginia Professional Boxing and Wrestling Program, which oversees mma in the state, pulled its approval. Reports claimed the VPBWP had issues with the fact that Shine allowed fans to vote on matchups. Other reports from Virginia said that Shine was unable to provide a surety in time to satisfy the commission, which was worried in light of fighter claims of not having been paid from the last event that didn’t go.

Shine had to either shut down the event or move it. They chose the latter, finding a tribal casino in Oklahoma that was willing to put on the show. The catch is that the Oklahoma Athletic Commission also refused to sanction the event, also due to the bond issue. And so Shine has decided to hold the event unsanctioned. Which means no safeguards will legally be required.

Although the law is not there requiring safeguards, we should assume that Shine will do its duty and have all the necessary safety precautions in place. The fighters are assuming all the risk.

The Oklahoma Athletic Commission has threatened to suspend anyone who fights on this card for 60 days. Since most fighters face a 30-90 day medical suspension after a fight anyway, this is hardly a deterrent. Especially if it can only be enforced in Oklahoma, which is not exactly a hotbed of mma activity.

Shine Fights 3 is a pay-per-view event, but it seems that no major cable company will carry it. Whether this is because of the unsanctioned nature of the event or simply because they feel Shine is not popular enough to warrant carriage is unclear.

There is an email joke being passed around that goes like this:

The first testicular guard, the “Cup”, was used in Hockey in 1874 and the first helmet was used in 1974. That means it took 100 years for men to realize their brain is also important.

The facts of the email aren’t quite accurate, but the joke is bang-on. The United States and Canada (and many other countries, I’m sure) have laws requiring people in motor vehicles to wear a seat belt and for motorcycle riders to wear a helmet. Put simply, we are just too stupid to protect ourselves; we need the police to enforce this!

This is not so far from the truth of mma, and other combat sports. Fighters will fight anywhere, anytime. Unless they are big names fighting in the big leagues, fighters don’t get paid a whole lot of money and will take just about any fight offered to them. Whether it’s a smart move or not. Whether it’s a safe event or not.

In Canada, where mma is only just beginning to be regulated, many fights have taken place “underground”, unregulated, without even a medical professional present. It’s for the safety of the fighters that fights are regulated and sanctioned. It’s for the safety of the fighters that Ontario recently decided to legalize mma. So it could be regulated.

But now we have Shine fights putting on an unregulated, unsanctioned event in Oklahoma. There have been only two deaths in sanctioned mma events, and both were likely the cause of the governing bodies not doing their due diligence. Had they examined the fighters before their fights, pre-existing conditions would likely have precluded each from fighting.

I’m sure you are with me in wishing each of the Shine fighters good luck and good health. And we look forward to the next Shine event which will hopefully not be mired in controversy.

Shine 3 Matchup Highlights

• Carlo Prater vs. Rich Crunkilton
• Kyle Baker vs. James Warfield
• Marcus Aurelio vs. Dennis Bermudez
• Charles “Krazy Horse” Bennett vs. Drew Fickett