Shine Fights had to change the location of their upcoming lightweight grand prix tournament from the Patriot Center on the George Mason University campus in Fairfax, Va to Oklahoma instead.
The events COO spoke out on the Underground Forums.
There really is a Santa Claus.
Unfortunately he does not live at the offices of the VSAC.
We will not be holding our event as scheduled at The Patriot Center however we have managed to successfully move our entire event to Oklahoma.
I want to apologize to the local fighters and fans and express my gratitude for your support. It was a pleasure meeting you.
I also would like to personally thank Santino Defranco and the rest of our amazing team that has been working round the clock to ensure that the fans match-ups can be seen live on Sept 10th.
See you then.
The whole move stems from the failure of the Virginia commission to issue a license to Shine Fights for the tournament.
According to a source close to the promotion, the issue at the heart of the move was a marketing push by Shine that gave fans the opportunity to choose the matchups for the first-round bouts in the tournament. That apparently didn’t sit well with Virginia’s commission, which operates under the Virginia Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation. The commission wouldn’t issue Shine a license because of the fan matchmaking, the source said.
Quote provided by MMAFighting.com, check the link for the full article.
The lightweight grand-prix is set for Sept. 10 and will feature an eight man, one-night tournament. Fans were asked by the promotion to choose the matchups for the tournament in a marketing promotion by the company.
Marcus Aurelio (20-8) – Charles Bennett (22-17-2) – Rich Crunkilton (16-3) – Drew Fickett (37-13) – Hector Muñoz (9-3) – Carlo Prater (24-7-1) – Josh Shockley (9-0) – James Warfield (20-6)