SHINE Fights: Lightweight Grand Prix (9/10/10)

Beau Taylor and BRUCE BECK are the announcing team for this event, which was a total mess. Originally scheduled to occur in Florida, the one night 8 man tournament format was rejected at the last minute and moved to an Oklahoma indian casino. Who's in the tournament? Carlos Prater, Drew Fickett, and Krazy Horse. And other guys. And it gets better - the fights were voted on by the fans! Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. The fights? The quarters and semis are 2 5 minute rounds with a 3 minute OT round in case there is a draw. No elbows are allowed in those fights. In the final, its 3 5 minute rounds with elbows being allowed.

The setup here is tiny. Are there 500 people in the crowd? Entrance to the ring is maybe 6 feet?

1) Charles "Kid Khaos" Bennett vs. Drew Fickett: Voted on by most of the fans. A train wreck of personalities.

FIGHT: Fickett Submission Rnd 1. This is about what you would expect. Fickett takes this to the mat and consistently works for submissions, which Bennett is wide open for. Bennett slams his way out of an armbar and pulls out of a armbar, but Fickett is eventually successful jumping to a guillotine standing. Bennett tries some sort of Canadian Destroyer sort of flip slam and ends up on his back getting choked out cold. Some dude from Young Indiana Jones is doing the in ring interviews. LOL (2)

2) Dennis Bermudez vs. Shannon Gugerty: Strange, strange fight to be watching IMO. Bermudez is undefeated and a last second replacement, Gugerty is a UFC reject.

FIGHT: Bermudez Unanimous Decision. The magic of a ring - at the end of the first, Bermudez goes for a trip takedown and both men tumble out of the ring. Gugerty's head lands on a chair and he needs a little time to recover. (1)

Bermudez: He's a good fighter. No lie. Very acceptable striking in terms of being an MMA fighter - pushes his shots a little, but tries to keep his hands up and really uses it more to set up the shot than anything. He's a good athlete. Has some decent takedowns too. Strong. There's a problem though - he's too small for 155. He needs to go down to 145.

Gugerty: Set on the back foot from the start, he only manages to slow down takedowns and absorb jabs. This in spite of huge advances in size and experience. He really couldn't do anything off his back either except to escape and return to his feet, where he was outdone by Bermudez's superior hand and foot speed.

BEN HENDERSON INTERVIEW~

3) Kyle Baker vs. James Warfield: Who? Baker hasn't fought in 11 months. Warfield has fought in every club show ever say the announcers. Wow, that means a lot.

FIGHT: Baker Split Decision. Another fight where the ring plays a big part - Warfield goes for a flying knee in the second and goes clean over the top rope, landing on a table outside and hurting his ribs. After a break to let him recover, its back on. We also get an overtime round! Yellow cards appear for Baker? What the hell? (1)

Baker: The first round he found himself totally controlled by Warfield, who was using very unorthodox techniques to draw Warfield's hands down or keep him off guard. Baker also sustained a nasty gash over his left eye from a punch of Warfield's. That theme continued into the second round with Warfield throwing strange bolo punches and pulling cool feints and keeping Baker offguard. Then Warfield flew over the top rope and seemed to hurt his right side of his abdomen. From that point on, Baker took over, closing the distance, getting the fight on the mat with trips, and nearly choking out Warfield in the second. Somehow he loses the third on a judges score card in spite of me not understanding how. He controlled the whole round. Maybe because of the yellow card?

Warfield: A decent enough striker early on with wild shots that would probably be countered well by a skilled athletic fighter of a higher caliber. After going out of the ring, he never truly recovers. It takes a lot out of him speed and agility wise. Baker then keeps the fight close and never relents with his own offensive attack. Warfield's wrestling is not all that and a bag of chips either. That is something he could have relied on and simply didn't have in his bag.

At this point, we have a nice long pause to re-tighten the ropes. They note that Baker might not even be able to continue, but mention that there is an alternate bout that happened which we didn't even hear about.

4) Rich Crunkilton vs. Carlo Prater: Another strange fight of guys who were jettisoned from the big boy promotions. They're good fighters, but who is really excited to see this?

FIGHT: Crunkilton Split Decision. Another Overtime round, plus a pause in between the first and second for "technical difficulties". Clearly, Crunkilton won the second and Prater the first. The third though was contested between two very gassed out men and ended up super competitive. I thought Prater only landed one really decent shot and got hit a couple times himself and was taken down and should have lost, so I'm OK with the decision. (1)

5) Dennis Bermudez vs. Drew Fickett: The ting walks start almost immediately after the last quarterfinal.

FIGHT: Fickett Submission Rnd 1. Again, Fickett just dominates a smaller man. This time, Bermudez is simply less seasoned and prepared to deal with a guy who is a legit threat as a submission wrestler and gets taken down to the mat, sees his guard passed, and gives up the back trying to get away. A RNC follows in short order. (1)

6) Carlo Prater vs. Charles Brown: And the next fight is a hot mess. With both of the winners of the latter fights being out of the tournament, Prater has come back and Charlie Brown, the winner of the alternate fight against Brian Van Hoven, are in. Again in Prater's case. Also, Prater takes like ten minutes to get into the ring because he needs his gloves re-taped.

FIGHT: Prater Majority Decision. This time Prater didn't need to go to OT, and while I had it 29-29, I knew hearing the scorecards who won. The first was unbelievably close, as Brown and Prater spent most of the round at great distance throwing leg kicks and jabs. Prater actually got shook up by a Brown punch but came back to clinch and throw Brown before the end of the round. In the second, it was all Prater. He took down Brown multiple times and held dominant position. Not a great fight by any means. (1)

At this point, we get some native american drumming. Amazing.

7) Carlo Prater vs. Drew Fickett: Your SHINE GP finals. Was the winner even paid? Who knows. This is a rematch of a fight Fickett won. Of course, for that fight, Prater hadn't been in the ring for 23 minutes prior to getting in to fight him.

FIGHT: Fickett Submission Rnd 1. KOTC special - Fickett with a shot immediately, passes the guard, punches, forces Pickett into giving his back, and chokes out Prater to win the Grand Prix. BTW, fun fact - Sherdog lists the amount of time for this second RNC in a row as being the same about as the semifinal win over Bermudez. (1)

FIGHT OF THE NIGHT: Bennett/Fickett

SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT: Fickett/Bennett

OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: 5 out of 10. In the tradition of modern day one night tournaments, the show feels roughshod. In fact, the repeated technical problems lead me to believe that someone had to go to the truck and convince the people in it to keep running.

OK, you say - production wise it was worse than YAMMA. But then this is a website that will watch anything. Shit with no production values gets reviewed. What about the fights? Well, the fights. They are fights. Part of the problem in watching them is that you have guys drilled into being sparring partner types fighting one another because technically they are good and SHINE wanted technically good fighters. I'm not saying everyone was like that. Bermudez didn't fight like a sparring partner. Bennett and Fickett threw down. So did, to a lesser extent, Baker and Warfield. So there were better fights than YAMMA. Even the mediocre fights were at least technically interesting and competitive.

Is this a bad show? From the perspective of whether or not I feel compelled to suggest it to anyone, I suppose it is. Aside from the Fickett fights, what is there to point to and be excited about? With all respect to Shannon Gugerty, he doesn't have the cache that Murilo Bustamante or Thales Leites in my mind as far as being a great fighter is concerned. Or, for that matter, as far as potential is concerned. So I know that those bouts perhaps mean about as much as Gugerty in this tournament did - an argument I admit can be made - but hardcore fans will watch Murilo Bustamante fight anyone so long as it isn't a MARS show and it isn't Tom Erikson in the opposing corner. Who is demanding Shannon Gugerty fights? Is anyone hoping to see a glimpse of the man that beat Dale Hartt? I find that hard to believe. I know I am not such a man, nor have I met a person who is either electronically via internet forum or in real life.

So what you are left with is a mess of a fight card that is poorly put on, feels incredibly minor league (makes the Gracie Fighting Championship feel like the NFL by comparison), and features a lot of fighters who've gotten their shot, never did a whole lot of memorable stuff with it, and haven't proven that they deserve another. Will SHINE run another event? Who knows.

D&R Rating: 23% (8/35)