By Eric Baker
When Shine Fights CEO Devin Price announced late last year he had a contract with Ricardo Mayorga to fight MMA, fans and media pundits responded with a resounding, "huh?"
Boxing fans know all too well that Ricardo Mayorga is famous for pulling out of bouts involving six-figure paychecks for more money. So why is he fighting Din Thomas under a rule set he has never competed under, for probably less money than he has seen for a fight in years?
Throw in some injunctions courtesy of Don King Productions, and the questions just keep on coming.
Still, Price insists Shine's 3rd show will go on as planned. The company has responded to King's claims by countering that Shine has a contract to promote Mayorga under mixed martial arts - and King's contractual relationship with Mayorga only relates to boxing contests. DKP claims that mixed martial arts contests contain boxing, and that potential injury could affect future bookings for Mayorga.
Legal maneuvering aside, the heat for this fight has been absolutely off the charts. After a press conference that seemed to go down exactly as planned, fans seemed genuinely interested in the Mayorga-Thomas bout. The two exchanged barbs and shoves for the press in New York City, and many mma fans - witnessing the genius that is Ricardo Mayorga at a press conference for the first time - flocked to the forums to declare their interest in the charismatic, hard-nosed, and hard-talking Nicaraguan. (I don't think the cigarette smoking hurt, either.)
The bout itself is as basic as they come. If Mayorga lands, Thomas is done. If Thomas can get inside while avoiding being blasted, he'll get Mayorga to the ground and run game. Still, I'm not convinced we'll actually see it until I see Mayorga in the ring with Thomas on Saturday night.
Overshadowed by a spectacle of a main event, Worlds Collide actually has a solid line up of fights. Following the withdrawal of Travis Galbraith, David Heath will step in to take on Murillo 'Ninja' Rua. 'Ninja' had it rough in his last run on U.S. soil, taking losses to Robbie Lawler and Benji Radach in the ill-fated and conceptually retarded Elite XC promotion. Following another loss to Riki Fukuda in FEG's DREAM promotion in Japan, Ninja rebounded with two wins over PRIDE throwback Alex Stiebling and Golden Glory product Jason Jones in the Bitetti Combat promotion in Brazil.
In what can only be called a PRIDE Bushido tribute match, Charles 'Krazy Horse' Bennett, aka Kid Chaos will take on Chute Boxe's Luiz Azeredo. If you grew up on Bushido, this fight just makes you smile. Let's hope that Krazy Horse doesn't run afoul of the law in the days leading up to the bout.
BJJ phenom Braulio Estima makes his mma debut on the card against Rick Hawn, and mma fans are thrilled to see the grappling phenom compete under mma rules. Estima, who is the 2009 ADCC 88KG and absolute division champion will have his work cut out for him with Hawn, who is an undefeated Team Sityodyong product.
Rounding out the action are Nick Thompson vs. Eduardo Pamplona, Alexandre Ferreira vs. Jamal Patterson, and Luciano Azevedo vs. Zac George. Shine Fights 3: Worlds Collide goes down Saturday, May 15 at the Crown Coliseum in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
