Deja Vu: Shine Fights Has Their Event Pulled

Talk about your poetic justice. It’s been only a matter of days when I first spoke on the upstart Shine Fights promotion going back on its word and not paying fighters from their failed first event, and now it appears that their second event is also in serious jeopardy. The Virginia Athletic Commission has refused to issue Shine Fights a license to hold their planned September 10 event, which was scheduled for the George Mason University campus in Fairfax, Virginia and was to feature a one-night eight-man Lightweight Grand Prix tournament that was tentatively scheduled to air on Pay-Per-View. Ironically, the one clever idea Shine Fights had leading up to this show has also become the main reason the plug was pulled.

For those that are unaware of the situation, here’s how it all started: in an effort to garner interest in their promotion and spur fan activity, Shine Fights held an online poll to determine the four opening-round fights of the Lightweight Grand Prix. Fans were allowed to mix and match the eight tournament fighters into whatever pairings they wanted, and whatever fights had the most votes would become the official fights. It was even recently announced by Shine and covered in another Fighters.com article that the first official “fan’s choice” pairing would see Drew Fickett take on Charles Bennett.

Depending on whom you ask, some criticized the idea of letting the fans play match-maker as a gimmick, lazy booking, and a cheap attempt to garner interest. Others praised Shine Fights for their creativity, the novelty of the idea, and their willingness to put so much faith into their fanbase. Unfortunately for the promotion, the Virginia State Athletic Commission was one of the groups that didn’t take too kindly to the idea, and since they’re one of the only groups with the power to pull the plug other than the promotion itself, I guess they’re the only group whose opinion really matters. It’s now been confirmed that the “fan’s choice” tournament idea was the main reason that Shine Fights got booted out of Virginia. With less than a week to go before their second show, Shine Fights is expected to re-book the show in Oklahoma. A venue has yet to be announced.

There comes a time where something, anything, becomes more trouble than it’s worth. Shine Fights is quickly approaching that point, some would say it’s even past that point. Even if some eleventh-hour miracle occurs and this event does go live and on Pay-Per-View, I can’t see it succeeding. Let’s be realistic: how many tickets do they honestly think they’ll sell in under a week? It may even be downright sad to see this show, since it will most likely take place in a near-empty arena. When it comes to death blows, it can’t get much worse than having to move your entire show to an entirely different state with less than a week to promote it in your new location. I think the Shine Fights top brass have serious stones if they actually do go ahead and still hold the event, but there’s a big difference between courage and stupidity.

And make no mistake about it: I think that Shine Fights going ahead and still holding this second show is far more stupid than it is courageous. It’s time to throw in the towel and call it a day. Why sink even more time and money into a sinking ship, especially when you haven’t even paid your fighters from your first show? An MMA promotion hasn’t failed this spectacularly since Affliction and Elite XC, and at least Affliction actually had two shows while EXC actually got on CBS. This promotion is dead before it even started. Those in charge just don’t know it yet.

And what about you, fans and friends? Can anything save Shine Fights?