Shine Fights COO Jason Chambers: "We'll Be in 60 Million Homes, We Could be #2 or #3"

The controversial Shine Fights promotion has been facing an uphill battle since… well, they’ve never really not been facing an uphill battle. Any aspiring MMA promotion has it rough, Shine just has it rougher since it’s had to deal with cancelled shows, angry fighters, angry athletic commissions, and last-minute venue changes. But not only is the promotion not going out without a fight, they’ve even begun firing back. New stars continue to be signed by the promotion, plus a TV deal is rumored to be in the works. And according to COO Jason Chambers, it’s all a matter of one small victory at a time.

Here are some highlights from an interview Chambers recently had with MMA Weekly: “What the company requires right now is constant diligence to grow… I think the most important thing was to have the ability to pump our own brakes… Sometimes MMA companies get too ambitious too quick… We’ve got a cable network that’s going to bring Shine into 60 million homes. I think we could easily be No. 2 or No. 3; I think that’s three to five years down the road… We’re going to make mistakes as we go, but hopefully we’ll learn from those and continue to be a fan friendly organization that offers exciting fights.”

Those that follow fighters.com may remember that I was at the forefront of the numerous Shine Fights controversies that arose over the last several months, including issues with Shine not paying fighters they promised they would pay and Shine having to relocate to a new venue with little more than a week’s notice. For the most part I felt as if Shine Fights had brought this all on themselves: if you make a promise you need to keep it.

But then, of course, Shine Fights ended up holding their Lightweight Grand Prix despite all the obstacles they had to overcome to have their show see the light of day. And surprisingly, it was a pretty good show. I wouldn’t call it one of the year’s best, but it was a fun night of fights that gave us old-school fight fans a chance to revel in the nostalgia of the old PRIDE days when fighters would compete in one-night tournaments and sometimes fight three times in one night just to prove who the best Mixed Martial Artist really was.

I wouldn’t say that event in and of itself healed all the wounds, but at the very least it took Shine Fights off of life support. It proved that when all is said and done, despite all the controversies, Shine Fights can put on a good event. They know how to utilize what talent they do have, and that’s an increasingly rare characteristic in MMA organizations nowadays.

Ultimately, only time will tell if they’re moving too fast. I think it’s ironic that Chambers mentions promotions growing too quickly for their own good… and then you hear news about Shine signing a TV deal and acquiring fighters like Efrain Escudero when just about everyone was already getting their eulogy speeches ready just a couple of months ago. But Shine Fights proved that you can never truly count them out no matter how dark their future seems.

I may not be a converted fan, but I’ll give Shine a pass for now. It’ll be interesting to see how the promotion continues to battle back from the brink, I think we can all agree on that. If another controversy rears its ugly head, though, you can bet that I’ll cover it and give my honest opinion on it, no matter how negative that opinion is perceived. But if Shine Fights continues to improve, there may come a time where I’d consider myself a fan of the promotion.

And what about you, fans and friends? How do you feel about Shine Fights, and what do you think the future holds for the promotion?