The American Top Team will be represented by five UFC and PRIDE veterans Friday in a Shine Fights-promoted event billed as "ATT vs. The World" in Miami, Fla.
ATT is home to top 10 ranked fighters the likes of Mike Brown, Thiago Alves, Thiago Silva, Jorge Santiago and an even longer list of current UFC and DREAM competitors.
FanHouse caught up with Shine Fights CEO Dorian Price on the same day as the weigh-ins to talk about the organization's sequel event and its future. Fight card is below the interview.
Will future cards be following a team vs. team theme?
Not necessarily, we just decided we wanted to partner with American Top Team because it's such a good gym. They turn out so much talent. We're here in the South Florida market so we thought it was a no brainer.
The first Shine event was in Columbus, Ohio. Will you return there or is Miami your new home?
I would like for Miami to be Shine's new home base. Quite honestly, I really like the city. I like the fan base, I think there is a lot of potential here. There's a lot of good fighters here which is always important for an organization to pull some homegrown talent. We'd really like to make Miami our home.
This card is considerably stronger than your first. Is that something people should expect in the future?
Absolutely, the cards will only get better and better. As you've seen from Shine 1 to Shine 2, it's gotten a lot better. You got a guy from Shine 1, Brian Foster, who just got pulled up to the UFC. He's going to be fighting Paul Daley at UFC 103 because of his performance [at Shine 1]. We're going to have a mix of guys who are up-and-comers and then guys who have more of a name. The cards are going to get better and better and that's what our goal as an organization is to have each card to get better.
Do you have target date and location for Shine 3?
We don't have a set date. We're looking at January or February of 2010, and to do that show in Miami.
FIGHT CARD:
Jorge Patino vs. Roan "Jucao" Carnerio
Ryan Healy vs. Luiz Firmino
Flavio Alvaro vs. Jean Silva
James Warfield vs. Yves Edwards
Gideon Ray vs. Junior Assuncao
Anthony Morrison vs. Micah Miller
Vannesa Porto vs. Ediene Gomes
Herbert "Whisper" Goodman vs. James Brasco
Phil Friedman vs. Brian Fuery
Danny Chavez vs. Jonatas Gurgel
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