...OH, ONE MORE THING - PLEASE BOOKMARK US & VISIT DAILY!
By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
The matchups for Friday's Shine Fights Lightweight Grand Prix have been finalized, as the organization announced them late Wednesday night. The eight-man, one-night-only tournament will air on pay-per-view from the First Council Casino in Newkirk, Okla.
Drew Fickett will meet Charles "Krazy Horse" Bennett, Rich Crunkilton faces Carlo Prater, James Warfield takes on “Alley Cat” Kyle Baker and late replacement Shannon Gugerty meets Dennis Bermudez. The winners of those fights will move on to the semifinals, and the winners of those two fights will fight a third time on the card in the finals.
"It is no secret that we have faced a barrage of challenges with this tournament," said Shine COO Jason Chambers. "However the Shine team has persevered and done an amazing job of ensuring both the fighters and fans get to be part of an amazing show Sept 10th."
The organization claims the tournament will be held under Nevada State Athletic Commission rules, although the event itself will be unsanctioned by Oklahoma's athletic commission.
Penick's Analysis: They continue to move forward as if the event is going to go off, but even with weigh-ins slated for later today I don't know that the event takes place. DirecTV had the same concerns when they pulled the event from their pay-per-view schedule, and the organization is going ahead with this event despite multiple claims from fighters that they still have yet to be paid what they were promised when the May event was canceled at the last minute. MMAWeekly.com has a story up about David Heath, who claims he's filing suit in small claims court against Shine as he has yet to be paid, and he's not the only one with issues.
RELATED STORY: OTHER NEWS: DirecTV not carrying Shark Fights this Saturday, takes Shine Fights off of Friday's schedule: [CLICK TO READ FULL ARTICLE]
DON'T GO YET... WE SUGGEST THESE MMATORCH ARTICLES, TOO!
Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
STAFF COLUMNISTS: Shawn Ennis - Jason Amadi
Frank Hyden - Rich Hansen
Chris Park - Matt Pelkey
Interested in joining MMATorch's writing team? Send idea for a theme to your column (for Specialist section) or area of interest (i.e. TV Reporter) along with a sample of writing to mmatorch@gmail.com.
