Perez's Take
PEREZ: Looking at why Shine Fights 3 failed
May 19, 2010 - 10:17:13 AM PEREZ: Looking at why Shine Fights 3 failed

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By: Anwar Perez, MMATorch Columnist

Shine Fights was to have their third fight card, and first pay-per-view event, held in Fayetteville, North Carolina last Saturday night; but due to many problems, not the least of which was the self-destruction by the organization themselves and interference from Don King, it was not to be.

This hits very close to home for me, as I live in Fayetteville, North Carolina. This was to be the second biggest MMA event held here in town, the first being the UFC Fight for the Troops that was held in December of 2008. Shine Fights had been promoting this card since early February, and the excitement level around town was very high.

Fayetteville is a military town, and as you could figure out on your own, its military men (and women too) are very big into MMA, as most places that hold pay-per-views are packed each fight night. So as you can see, having another big fight card here in town was a big deal.

Last Wednesday, the fighters arrived, and a meet and greet was held at the local Hooters here in town. My roommate, a reporter for a local magazine in town, went there to try to get some interviews with some of the fighters. It was said to be a laid back atmosphere, and all the fighters seemed to be in good spirits, including main event fighters Din Thomas and Ricardo Mayorga.

It was during this first day that red flags started popping up. It was revealed in an interview with my roommate that one of the main fighters, Nick Thompson, was not competing on the card due to an injury, and fellow fighter Derrick Noble was taking his spot.

Well, according to the Shine Fights website he was still on the card, and was also being promoted as such, with many internet sites claiming the same thing the week of the fight. If one of the main card fighters for a UFC pay-per-view got hurt, do you think the UFC would still try to promote the fighter, even though he’s not fighting? Not likely.

Thursday held some weird things as well, as the open workouts were held in Raleigh, about an hour outside of the fight venue. Mayorga was seen smoking a cigarette, as one could assume was a way to get inside his opponents head.

Friday held the weigh-ins at a local bar, and from what my roommate said, you would walk in and there was no organization. You were left to your own devices as press, and would grab whomever you wanted to speak to. The first thing you noticed when you walked into the bar was Mayorga, again, outside smoking a cigarette. Not to mention the scuffle that took place inside between Thomas and Mayorga.

As of that Friday, Shine Fights was ignoring the looming cloud of Don King and his injunction against Mayorga fighting, and thought nothing would come of it.

By Saturday afternoon, news had broke that the injunction was granted for Don King (and his million dollars to get it in the first place) from a Florida judge, and that Mayorga could not fight on the card. Shine Fights was going to ignore the injunction until they were served with it, according to their publicist.

At this time, it was around 6pm that afternoon, and people were already at the venue getting seated for the event. Shine Fights then announced that the Thomas and Mayorga fight would be called off due to the injunction. In its place, they moved up the Murilo “Ninja” Rua vs. David Heath (the third replacement for Ninja) into the headlining spot.

Ironically, the fighter that Heath replaced, Travis Galbraith, who withdrew less than a week away from the fight, said that the contractual and seemingly “unprofessional” nature of Shine Fights' handling of the fighter led to him walking away from the fight.

The press at the time was notified of the change, as a group of us had front row tickets due to connections to the venue. Before we could leave for the venue within the next hour, it was announced that the whole fight card and pay-per-view had been cancelled. The North Carolina Athletic Commission had pulled the plug on the event due to many factors, few of which were known at the time.

According to reports release that Monday, Shine Fights had failed to meet requirements of the North Carolina Athletic Commission. One was having a doctor present at the fight, which there was none. The other was presenting the fight purses two hours before the card was supposed to begin. These two requirements not being met were a big part of Shine Fights not holding their fight card.

But, let’s look at the real issue.

Shine Fights decided not to take Mayorga’s boxing promoter, Don King, seriously enough that he would be able to get an injunction against them. They were unable to take care of their promotion of the fighter in a manner in which all of this could have been avoided. They also did nothing to notify fans of a changing fight card, most notably one of the main fighters on the card, Nick Thompson being unable to fight due to an injury. The day of the fight itself, he was still being promoted online. Between the fracas that was created not only at the weigh-ins, but at the press conference to announce the fight, its no surprise really that this wasn’t going to be any where close to a reality.

Shine Fights head Devin Price has stated that he feels most sorry for the fighters that had trained so hard to fight on this card, and that they would be paid 25% of their earnings, depending on the contract. But most importantly, this could have been all avoided if Price and his Shine Fights cohorts had dotted their I’s and crossed their T’s in getting all the issues resolved beforehand, not to mention getting a grip on the fighters, timeliness of changes to the card, and really, taking a man of Don King’s stature serious.

Many have blamed Don King, but look a little closer and the Shine Fights promotion as a whole has and will always be the problem if things keep going like this.

As fans, we were devastated. Fayetteville never really gets the big concerts or big attractions, let alone big fights. It wasn’t the UFC, but it was close enough for most of us.