Not to bag on mma blogs or online journalism, but after sifting through dozens of articles that were either verbatim re-posts or rehashes of information released by other sites, I felt the need to see if I could find any official announcements from Shine Fights on the future of their Lightweight Grand Prix.  (Caveat= I'm not sure if it's his wild charisma or intensely honest eyes, but as soon as Luke Thomas confirmed it on MMANation I took it as fact the show was moved.  He has that much journalistic credibility with me). 

And after going through the various online media outlets of Shine Fights, all I can say is holy-s, their marketing coordination is a joke.  Not that I held Shine in high esteem after their last debacle, but the only way to really  describe the marketing strategy for Shine is "giant cluster-f."

First I went to their website, http://www.shinefights.com/.  The site is still advertising for the event to take place at the Patriot Center, as well as allowing patrons to buy tickets for the events.  Their last new release was from May 7th, and the only recently updating feature is a twitter feed (under the title Worlds Collide: Matorga vs. Thomas), where various mma sites are posting links to stories about what's happening with Shine.  But no actual input from Shine.

Shine obviously hasn't informed the Patriot Center of any changes, because the event is still listed on the Patriot Center website along with a link to buying tickets.  Consequently Patriot Center tickets are handled by Ticketmaster, here's their refund policy if you've already bought tickets- http://www.ticketmaster.com/h/returns.html?tm_link=tm_i_rp

So I went to check the twitter of Shine Fights

Shinefight's CEO hasn't posted anything since this dubious statement last May (@SFP_CEO)

Shinefight's own twitter account (@Shinefightsmma).... and I'm guessing it's the legit twitter account for ShineFights despite the fact they have only 61 followers, had no announcements.  Other sites had posted links to stories about Shine moving but still no comment directly from Shine.

Finally Shine Fights COO Jason Chambers on his twitter (@FollowMMA) had an announcement from Shine about the show (without actually addressing that they were leaving one location and moving to another)

http://www.ticketstorm.com/event/shinelightweightgrandprix/firstcouncilcasino/newkirk/4952

So it looks like the event is headed to Newkirk Oklahoma and the First Council Casino.  The First Council Casino website had yet to add anything about Shine Fight's show, but they are advertising Loretta Lynn for Saturday Night.

I know coordinating everything in a promotion, including online advertising, is a huge task.  And I know Shine probably wanted to avoid making premature statements about moving the show until they were 100% this was route they were going to take.  But now that the show is definitely moving, Shine should be doing everything possible to put out the current information so that everyone is crystal clear on what is happening, and they can begin trying to sell tickets in Oklahoma show.  Dragging their feet and releasing information only in small dribbles can't be the best business strategy for making the best of what they have, and contributes to the promotions image as a shady promotion.

Two Sides notes:

1.  From the twitter of Jason Chambers

Apparently Kyle 'the Alley Cat" Baker has been added to the grandprix, not quite sure who he is replacing but he is now the fighter I'm rooting for in the tournament.  But adding a local fighter to a show just after you decide to pack up and move somewhere else? Genius!

2.  Apparently Jason Chambers is a twitter follower of both Luke Thomas and Bloody Elbow.  If you somehow end up reading this, I'm sure all the problems with Shine are totally not your fault and if they are... then don't take it too hard.  Things happen.  On the plus side ...........um........ you look spiffy in all your pictures?