NEW YORK, NY, May 19, 2010 – The live finale of “The Ultimate Fighter: Team Liddell vs Team Ortiz” on Spike TV will include two bouts showcasing four of the UFC’s most exciting fighters. Emanating from The Pearl at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, NV on Saturday, June 19 at 9:00 PM ET, the fights announced today include a middleweight bout between Aaron Simpson (7-0) and Chris Leben (19-6), and a lightweight matchup pitting Dennis Siver (15-7) against Spencer Fisher (24-5).

Currently sporting a 7-0 record, with all but one of his victories coming via knockout, Aaron Simpson is a former All-American wrestler who is developing into a lethal striker. He left a lasting impression on the minds of fight fans with his 18-second knockout of David Avellan at WEC 36 in November 2008. After entering the UFC, he continued to display his devastating punching power, defeating Tim McKenzie and Ed Herman via TKO early in successive bouts, before running his UFC win streak to three with a decision victory over Tom Lawlor this past January.

Simpson’s opponent is the enigmatic Chris “The Crippler” Leben (19-6), who was one of the breakout stars from the historic first season of “The Ultimate Fighter.” Leben’s UFC career began with seven straight wins over such notables as Jorge Rivera, Patrick Cote, and Luigi Fioravanti. Never one to back down from a challenge, Leben had his streak snapped in April 2006 by current UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva. Since then, he has continued to take on all comers, and following a win over Jay Silva earlier this year, he hopes that a victory over the undefeated Sampson will further him on the path for a shot at the UFC middleweight title.

Hailing from Mannheim, Germany, Dennis Siver has 22 professional bouts under his belt, and only four have gone to decision. He made his UFC debut in 2007, but it was in January 2009 that he truly announced his arrival as he took home “Knockout of the Night” honors with a TKO victory over Nate Mohr at UFC 93, knocking out his opponent with a spinning back kick. After a win over Dale Hartt at UFC 99 in his native Germany, he once again scored a “Knockout of the Night” bonus with the same spinning back kick against Paul Kelly at UFC 105 in November 2009. He had his four fight winning streak stopped by Ross Pearson this past March, but will look to bounce back against his opponent, Spencer Fisher, on June 19.

North Carolina native Spencer Fisher has established himself as one of the most exciting fighters in the UFC over the course of his five year career with the organization. He holds wins over such UFC notables as Thiago Alves, Sam Stout, and Jeremy Stephens, and has twice won “Fight of the Night” honors for his relentless attack inside the Octagon™. Coming off of a tough loss to Joe Stevenson at UFC 104, Fisher hopes to have his hand raised at the end of what promises to be an exciting fight with Siver.

Other bouts, including the finals of “The Ultimate Fighter: Team Liddell vs Team Ortiz,” will be announced at a later date. The two finalists will be competing for a six-figure contract with the preeminent mixed martial arts organization in the world, The Ultimate Fighting Championship®.

Spike TV is available in 98.6 million homes and is a division of MTV Networks. A unit of Viacom (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), MTV Networks is one of the world’s leading creators of programming and content across all media platforms. Spike TV’s Internet address is www.spike.com and for up-to-the-minute and archival press information and photographs, visit Spike TV’s press site at http://www.spike.com/press.

The North Carolina Boxing Authority explained it’s reasons for canceling Saturday’s Shine Fights 3 “Worlds Colllide” event today.

Since the Boxing Authority failed to receive the remainder of the bond required to cover fighter purses for the event, and the promotions failure to have a physician at ringside, they felt it was in the fighters best interest to cancel the event.

Terrance Merriweather, the superintendent of the North Carolina Boxing Authority, spoke today about canceling the event.

“There were concerns about fighter safety and well being, that’s why the fight was canceled,” said Merriweather on Monday. “What we’re talking about specifically is failing to have a doctor at the event, at the time for the fighters to be seen before the fights had started.”

“North Carolina rules and (regulations) require the promoter to have all purse amounts to the boxing authority two hours before the first match-up, and those requirements were not met,” said Merriweather.

According to Merriweather, promoters are required to provide a minimum bond of $10,000 at least 30 days prior to an event. The promoter has until two hours prior to show time to post a bond for the remainder of fighter purses.

Since Shine Fights CEO Devin Price was stuck in Florida dealing with an injunction filed by Don King he was unable to return on time and provide the purse to the Boxing Authority.

The injunction filed by boxing promoter Don King was to stop main event fighter Ricardo Mayorga, who had a boxing contract with King, from fighting Din Thomas. King’s company felt Mayorga would be violating his contract by fighting at the event. While Shine officials argued that it was a boxing contract and not an mma contract. In the end, the Florida judge agreed with King.

According to Price, all fighters will get paid, but it will only be part of their fight purse based on a percentage depending on the contractual obligations set forth when the deal was signed.

HT: MMAWeekly.com

This past Saturday Shine Fights CEO Devin Price needed to be in two places at once, unfortunately for him that was impossible.

With the third show of the promotion about to kick off that evening, headlined by former boxing champion turned mixed martial artist Ricardo Mayorga who faced one time UFC contender Din Thomas, Price found himself stuck in a courthouse in Broward County, Fla.

Don King, who is Mayorga’s boxing promoter, had succeeded in filing an injunction to stop the fight from happening, and while Price was trying to deal with that in court he apparently needed to be in Fayetteville, N.C. to deal with the Boxing commission there.

“I’ve been in court all day yesterday and all day today. I actually did not get out of court until about 4:30. So as you know the judge granted the injunction for Don King, and so the Ricardo Mayorga fight was off,” said Price.

“However, we were ready to move forward with our show because we felt and we still feel like we have a great card. So we were ready to go put it on and fans were actually in the building from my understanding, and the commissioner ended up calling the fights for reasons I’m not entirely sure of. So I don’t want to speak too much around that.”

Still unsure of why the commission canceled the show, Price plans on contacting them on Monday to get the answer.

“The commissioner canceled the show. I didn’t know they could cancel the show,” Price said. “The commission decided to cancel the show. I just want to get an understanding from their side of things why they decided to call the event. That’s one of the first things I’m going to find out.”

He promised to take care of the fighters to ensure they would get their money and vowed to put on another event very soon.

“The fighters will all be taken care of financially for this fight. This is not going to be a situation where we’re going to say ‘oh the fight’s canceled, nobody’s getting paid,’” said Price. “People will be paid, and we’re going to look to put on a fight very soon. We’re probably looking at June/July/August.”

HT: MMAWeekly.com

Just hours after Shine Fights broadcaster Karyn Bryant informed the world that Ricardo Mayorga
had been officially pulled from tonight's Shine Fights pay-per-view
event, the entire event has
been scrapped.

"[North Carolina] commission cancels Shine Fights," Bryant posted on her
Twitter account.

Shine Fights officials have yet to make an official announcement, but
MMAjunkie.com has confirmed with sources close to
the event that the ring at the Fayetteville, N.C., venue that was to
house the event is already being dismantled, and tonight's pay-per-view event has been scrapped.

Fayetteville, NC (USA): Last night, main event fighters Din Thomas and Ricardo Mayorga both made weight for their anticipated 160 lb. catchweight encounter at “Worlds Collide: Mayorga vs. Thomas,” which is to take place this evening at the Crown Coliseum in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Things became heated as Thomas and Mayorga faced off for a media photo opportunity, and words were exchanged. The situation escalated to the point where the former boxing world champion gave his veteran MMA counterpart a hard shove in the chest. Order was quickly restored, but the message was clear: it’s going to be a heated battle at “Worlds Collide.”

All other fighters also made weight. Here are the full weigh-in results of the pro card:

Main event:

160 lbs.: Ricardo “El Matador” Mayorga (159.8) vs. Din “Dinyero” Thomas (158.6)

Main card:
190 lbs: Murilo “Ninja” Rua (191) vs. David Heath (191.2)
155 lbs: Luiz Azeredo (152.8) vs. Charles “Kid Khaos Bennett” Bennett (155.8)
205 lbs: Alexandre “Cacareco” Ferreira (204.2) vs. Jamal “The Suit” Patterson (205.8)
180 lbs: Braulio Estima (179.4) vs. Rick Hawn (175.2)

Undercard:
170 lbs: Eduardo Pamplona (168.2) vs. Derrick Noble (169.2)*
150 lbs: Mario “Serious” Stapel (149) vs. Zac George (150)*
185 lbs: Roger Carroll (183.8) vs. Paulo Souza (185.8)
*Swing bout

“Worlds Collide” is taking place at the Crown Coliseum in Fayetteville, NC, and will be beamed on PPV on cable and satellite in the United States and Canada. The event will be broadcasted in High-Definition, and it will be available in both English and Spanish (where available). The broadcast will start at 9 PM ET/6 PM PT and will be produced by MultiVision Media, Inc. There will be a 30-minute countdown show prior to the live event at 8:30 PM ET/5:30 PM PT. The event will be available for $29.95. Tickets may be obtained by calling Ticketmaster at 1-800-736-1420, or online at www.ticketmaster.com, or at the Crown Coliseum Box Office. For box office hours and more info, please call (910) 438-4100.

For more information on Shine Fights or “Worlds Collide,” please follow Shine on Twitter@ShineFights, MySpace (http://www.myspace.com/ShineFights), YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/ShineFights), or become a fan on Facebook.

All fighters, including headliners Din Thomas and Ricardo Mayorga, successfully made weight and are cleared for tonight's Shine Fights 3 "World Collide: Mayorga vs. Thomas" event.

The show takes place at Crown Coliseum in Fayetteville, N.C. and airs on pay-per-view for $29.95.

Thomas weighed 158.6 pounds and Mayorga weighed 159.8 for the 160-pound catchweight bout.

(Pictured Din Thomas and Ricardo Mayorga)

Tonight’s Shine Fights “Worlds Collide: Mayorga vs Thomas” weigh-ins from Big Apple Restaurant & Sports Pub in Fayetteville, NC kicked off what is to be a great pay-per-view event. The event was emceed by Karen Bryant of MMA Heat, and was observed by Ron Foster and Shine CEO Dorian Price. All fighters made weight for their bouts with a few fighters having to be draped off so they could finish their cuts.

Full weigh-in results for Shine Fights 3 “Worlds Collide: Mayorga vs. Thomas”

- Din Thomas (158.6) vs. Ricardo Mayorga (159.8)
- David Heath (191.2) vs. Murilo Rua (191)
- Eduardo Pamplona (168.2) vs. Derrick Noble (169.2)
- Alexandre Ferreira (204.2) vs. Jamal Patterson (206.2)
- Braulio Estima (179.4) vs. Rick Hawn (175.2)
- Luiz Azeredo (152.8) vs. Charles Bennett (155.8)
- Mario Stapel (149) vs. Zac George (150)
- Roger Carrol (183.8) vs. Paulo Souza (185.8)

The live event is set for this evening at the Crown Coliseum in Fayetteville, NC with the live PPV starting at 9 p.m. ET (6 p.m. PT) with pricing set at $29.95. A 30 minute countdown show will begin at 8:30 p.m. ET (5:30 p.m. PT).

Photo and weigh-ins courtesy of MMASpot.net.

As the upstart Shine Fight Promotions tries to entice fight fans to
spend $29.95 on this weekend's mixed martial arts action, the group is
upping the ante at "Worlds Collide: Mayorga vs. Thomas."

MMAjunkie.com has confirmed with Shine Fight
matchmaker Ron Foster that the pay-per-view event will likely include a
seven-fight main card.

Featuring a main event between nine-time UFC veteran Din Thomas and former boxing world champion Ricardo Mayorga, "Worlds Collide: Mayorga vs. Thomas" takes place May 15 at
Crown Coliseum in Fayetteville, N.C.