Shine Fights forced to move grand prix to Oklahoma

Don King and Ricardo Mayorga continue to haunt Shine Fights, four months after the former's injunction prevented the latter from his MMA debut for the promotion.

Issues arising with the Virginia's state athletic commission has forced Shine to move its Sept. 10 grand prix lightweight tournament to to the First Council Casino in Norman, Okla.

The biggest issue, according to a report by MMAFighting.com, stems from Shine's marketing move of letting fans vote on the matchups for its one-night-only, eight-man tournament.

That gives Shine seven days to sell tickets in Oklahoma and refund tickets in Virginia.

"The commission did not express any problems with our event until certain members of the MMA community accused Shine of having reneged on our responsibilities following the cancelation of our May 15, 2010 'Worlds Collide:  Ricardo Mayorga-Din Thomas' fight card in Fayetteville, N.C.," Shine Fights CEO Devin Price said in a statement.  The Virginia commission was understandably concerned, but instead of allowing us to prove the concerns were unfounded, they refused to provide a license.  And we could have proved this since on Friday [Sept 3] the North Carolina commission ruled that Shine HAD met all its obligations from the May 15, 2010 event.