Nothing if Not Defiant: Shine Fights Announces Pending TV Deal

The much-beleaguered Shine Fights promotion has seen its fair share of highs and lows in its brief run as a mid-tier Mixed Martial Arts promotion. A failed event that would have seen former pro boxer Ricardo Mayorga taking on Din Thomas has left lasting damage on the promotion, to the point where their follow-up event faced several monumental setbacks and was in danger of nearly being cancelled as well. Undeterred by all, Shine Fights held its third event, which was a surprisingly good one at that. More recently, the promotion made waves when it was announced that former “Ultimate Fighter” champion Efrain Escudero had signed to their roster. Once again proving that they’re nothing if not defiant, Shine Fights recently announced that they’ve managed to hook an even bigger fish: a cable television deal.

MMA Weekly brings word of the pending TV deal, straight from Shine Fights COO Jason Chambers. Here are the highlights from the interview Chambers had with the folks over at Weekly: “For all intensive purposes we’ve come to an agreement… It’s definitely a network that everyone will be familiar with… We’ll be announcing in the next few weeks who that television partner is, we have a great relationship with them now… What we’re going to be able to do is put some of the amazing fights that we have that wouldn’t necessarily make sense to put on pay-per-view, but they’re still guys with 20, 30 fights, wins over huge names, exciting fighters and you’re going to be able to watch them for free.”

It’s tough for me to criticize more free MMA on TV, especially since the WEC/UFC merger is going to mean less MMA on free TV in the immediate future. However, I simply have to ask the following question: aren’t we getting a bit ahead of ourselves here? I’ll give praise where praise is due, Shine Fights held a pretty decent event despite an avalanche of opposition. But their reputation remains far from squeaky-clean.

I just don’t think that Shine Fights is a viable promotion right now, and more over, I think it’s very likely that they’re going to fall into the same trap that killed promotions like the IFL and Elite XC. When a promotion that’s not ready for TV gets rushed onto TV, any number of things could go wrong that can ultimately start a chain of events that causes the promotion to spiral out of control and ultimately go belly-up. Shine Fights hasn’t even fully healed the damage and repaired the wounds from the failed Mayorga/Thomas “Worlds Collide” event. Several fighters still insist that Shine Fights hasn’t sent them a dime despite vowing to pay their fighters even though the show was cancelled, and some fighters feel so strongly about this that, according to reports, a few of them are considering legal action.

Amidst all this, I simply have to wonder if this TV deal is a good idea. I’m extremely hesitant about the future of Shine Fights, and this doesn’t really alleviate my fears at all. It’s nice that they landed a TV deal, but TV deals are always a double-edged sword. They could save your promotion, I won’t argue that, but they could also help engineer its destruction.

And at the end of the day, with all their past history, which side of the coin do you think Shine Fights will fall on? That’s my point, in a nutshell. Shine has done an admirable job of surviving under a lot of pressure, but that’s just it: they’ve survived, not thrived, and a TV deal works best (some would say it only works, period) when a promotion is thriving.

So, will I be watching Shine Fights? Of course, fans and friends. Why not, right? It’s free MMA on TV, it’s hard to complain. And I don’t think I’m complaining. I’m simply trying to throw out the word of caution, even if it means raining on the parade a bit. I’ll be pulling for Shine Fights because I think they can put on a good show, but both my gut and my head are in agreement: Shine Fights is facing one massive uphill battle.

And what do you think, fans and friends? Will this be the final straw for Shine, or the start of a reversal of fortunes?