« Joe Warren sees his future in MMA at Bantamweight | Home | Proponents for MMA legislation need to step up their game and update their playbook »
Shine Fights faces oxidation after Virginia cancellation of Lightweight tournament
By Zach Arnold | September 7, 2010
For those keeping score, Shine Fights was going to have a Lightweight tournament old-school style in Virginia at the Patriot Center (campus of George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia — the Washington D.C. area). Jason Chambers was scheduled to talk about the event on Luke Thomas’s MMA Nation radio show. Instead, the Virginia state athletic commission canceled the Shine event after reportedly claiming that they wouldn’t sanction the show due to ‘fan booking’ of tournament fights. This resulted in Shine issuing a press release in which the league said that they had a verbal agreement with the Virginia commission.
Faced with this dilemma, we have the following two stories to link to:
In short, MMA Rising is reporting that if any of the fighters go through and fight on the Shine card that they will get suspended in all states that sanction MMA. In the case of Marcus Aurelio, he is booked against Shin’ya Aoki on the DREAM card on 9/25 at Nagoya Rainbow Hall and has to figure out what to do — does he fight on a Shine show that is under some pressure, to say the least, or does he fight in Japan for a promotion that has fighters complaining about money problems?
Shine says that they have been the victim of bad and inaccurate press from MMA media members and Tapout Radio conducted an interview last night with one MMA writer singled out in particular, JA Yount. Listen to that interview here (28 MB).
It should be worth repeating from the MMA Rising article — Oklahoma’s commission won’t sanction this event. We’re not talking California or New Jersey here, but rather Oklahoma.
Topics: Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 15 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
I’ll be at the event.
And I do not understand why people dog on the Oklahoma Commission. Alot of the fights that take place do so on Indian land. This state was known as “Indian Territory” before becoming a state, and there are still large parts of the state that are considered “Indian Land”.
I have seen MMA fights in downtown Oklahoma City and they had the same kind of sanctioning that I have seen at other shows similar in size. Now I was not backstage, but that is just what I saw.
I’m curious as to how accurate the details are that Shine is giving us. Not calling anyone liars on any of the sides, but I don’t think the entire story is out yet. Just a hunch on my part and not based on anything but my own keyboard warrior speculation.
I was under the impression that the OK commission has no jurisdiction over this event due to it being held on a reservation.
That is true. That is what I said in my first post. The Indian Nations are, like they are in other states, semi-autonomous, and can hold events (gambling/horse racing/MMA fights) that would be illegal and/or under the jurisdiction of other state agencies. I believe that this is the same way that there are MMA fights in New York even though it is not legalized and sanctioned there.
I was inbetween going and not going considering i live 15 mins away from the patrion center and Shine having arecord of screwing their fighters out of money. Im glad its not gonna be in VA.
Sherdog is reporting that Shine couldn’t get a Bond to cover fighter’s pay. This is a huge issue.
My guess is that any insurance company that looked at Shine’s financials said no because either:
1) They didn’t have the money on their books.
2) Nobody who runs Shine either has the money or they were unwilling to put their own personal assets up for the bons in case of failure to pay.
Either way, Shine is a complete train wreck.
If the show goes off, I will let you know how it goes.
I’m not buying my tickets up front though. I might have been born, but not yesterday.
I will wait to buy them at the door.
Oxidized.
“One day after the promotion moved Friday’s show from Fairfax, Va., to Newkirk, Okla., a representative from the Oklahoma State Athletic Commission says the commission will not sanction the event, dubbed “Shine Fights: Lightweight Grand Prix.”
They also may seek an injunction to stop it from taking place.
“The commission has been 100 percent successful in getting unauthorized events shut down,” Oklahoma State Athletic Commission Director Joe Miller today wrote in an email to MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com).”
Just got off of the telephone with Joe Miller (Oklahoma State Athletic Commission Executive Director) and I asked him if I should buy tickets to the Shine Fights going down in Newkirk, OK, or if he thought that the show was going to be canceled. He told me that he thought that the fights would go through, but he’d hate for me to lose my money. He did tell me that some of the states referees had contacted him and asked him if it would be OK to officiate the fights, so he was under the assumption that Shine Fights had contacted them (the referees). He and I agreed that it would be best to purchase my tickets at the door.
In full disclosure, I looked his telephone number up on the internet and the extension that was given went directly to him. I told him that I was just a fan and would like his advice. He was very helpful and a nice guy on the phone.
*launches prank call attack on Joe Miller*
Zuffa has connections in OK
According to Joe Miller yesterday, fighters taking part in the event will not be suspended per-se, rather his commission will not approve them for a fight for 60 days. The info will be passed on to the Association of Boxing Commissions, however it wont carry the weight of a medical or drug-related suspension/revocation of licence.
It also leaves fighters completely free to compete in other unsanctioned events or events abroad (e.g. ‘Maximus’ fighting in Dream), although Miller said that he would ‘re-set’ the 60 day period on Oklahoma for any fighter found to be working around it in such a way.
David Heath as come forward to say that he’s still not been paid for ‘Worlds Collide’, despite Shine’s claim that they have met all their obligations to fighters from that show.
Heath has said he intends to wait until Monday morning to take them to small claims court…presumably waiting until there is some cash in the coffers.
http://plixi.com/p/44202560
At least they are on the ground in Oklahoma. Hoping to get a few pictures with Krazy Horse. Not sure what the best way to talk to him will be.
ebonics… I kid I kid.
If you can let us know how everything goes man. It’s 30 bucks on PPV, but I am saving my PPV buy this weekend for Shark fights.