After meeting and speaking with the Price brothers, its easy to see that Shine Fights is in very good hands. Devin and Dorian Price are the focused minds behind the promotion. Their upcoming show, Worlds Collide, at the Crown Coliseum in Fayetville, NC on May 15th will be headlined by a main event pitting legendary boxer Ricardo Mayorga, in his MMA debut, against MMA veteran Din Thomas. They are also assisted by Ron Foster who is the promotion's matchmaker.
Devin, the CEO of the company, has a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Rhode Island as well as 2 Master's degrees from the Fisher College of business and Ohio State University. This dude has a serious business resume and serious business chops! And more importantly, he is a HUGE fan of the sport!
Dorian is no academic slouch either having graduated from Hampton University with a degree in Sports Management and later getting his Master's degree in Hospital Administration from Ohio State. It was at Ohio State that Dorian ended up meeting Mark Coleman and Kevin Randleman from pioneering MMA camp Hammer House. That meeting led Dorian to begin making moves towards a pro MMA career. He later ended up training with Rich Franklin, Jorge Gurgel and legendary muay thai instructor, Master Toddy. In the words of his brother Devin, "I have been following Dorian's career, from barnyards in Ohio to big arenas in Las Vegas, watching his fights in muay thai and then later in MMA." In other words, he has paid his dues with good 'ole blood, sweat and tears. Dorian moved on to earning a spot on season 6 of The Ultimate Fighter on Spike TV. It was on that show that he met Matt Serra and began training with him as well. He has since compiled a very respectable pro MMA record of 8-3. As a co-founder of Shine Fight Promotions, he now serves as the head of fighter relations.
Ron Foster, Shine's resident matchmaker, was first introduced to the sport of mixed martial arts while stationed in Hawaii as a member of the US Army Military Police. Hawaii has long been a renowned hotbed of MMA activity. It was there that he started an amateur fighting career before moving to Washington, D.C., where he turned professional, competing in the district's first sanctioned MMA event. His 3 pro fights gave him the insight of a fighter, allowing him to better relate with fighters, and help foster, pun intended, the fighter friendly atmosphere that is so important to the ongoing success of the promotion. Foster has relationships with all the top MMA teams including Extreme Couture, American Top Team, Brazilian Top Team and the H.I.T Squad. The ability to procure fighters from these camps all but guarantees that Shine's roster of talent will remain at a very high level.
Shine Fight Promotions has since built a very solid roster of fighters, combining world class MMA veterans with promising new talent. In their upcoming card alone you have MMA vets like Din Thomas, Ninja Rua, Junior Assuncao, Luiz Azeredo, Nick Thompson and Travis Galbraith. You also have middle tier fighters (as far as experience) like Eduardo Pamplona and Alexandre Ferreira, along with promising new talent like Jamal Patterson and Braulio Estima. Estima is making his pro debut and is an ADCC champion. On top of all that you have boxing legend Ricardo Mayorga, who is also making his MMA debut. That's a VERY solid line-up of fighters for one card.
Also of note regarding Shine Fights is that they will be staging their fights in a ring as opposed to a cage. When I asked Dorian why they chose to go with a ring instead of a cage, he responded by saying what many of us MMA purists have been saying forever. The cage provides an unfair advantage to certain styles of fighters and can be used to trap fighters and control them against the fence. Dorian believes fighting in a ring requires more overall technical ability. He also said that Shine wanted to be different, not just another "cage fighting" promotion. The sport is mixed martial arts, not cage fighting. And of course, its a 5 rope MMA ring, not a 4 rope boxing ring.
In addition, there is talk of possibly implementing a Pride-like "yellow card" system, where fighters are issued a "yellow card" for stalling the action and subsequently fined a percentage of their purse. Money is a strong motivator. Had the UFC had a similar system in place, fights like the Anderson Silva/Demian Maia debacle most likely would not happen. This is still in the talking stages and will need the approval of whichever SAC is overseeing their event.
With the incorporation of a ring and the future possibility of a yellow card system, Shine is creating a very Pride-like promotion. This is sure to make many MMA fans very happy. If they continue signing "name" fighters and cultivating new talent, the sky's the limit for this burgeoning promotion. I very much look forward to seeing Shine Fights progress and grow with the sport.
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