Judge Rules Against Ricardo Mayorga, Shine Fights

Ricardo Mayorga's MMA debut may not happen after all, thanks to a Florida judge's ruling. A motion for injunctive relief filed by Don King Productions to stop Mayorga's MMA bout against former UFC fighter Din Thomas on tonight's Shine Fights 3 event in North Carolina was granted on Saturday afternoon, putting the pay-per-view offering's main event in serious jeopardy.

The question now seems to be, will Shine Fights promoters honor that ruling, or risk the consequences?

Shine Fights representatives initially indicated that tonight's main event fight between Mayorga and Thomas would still take place, but as of this time there is still no official comment from the promoters, who did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

"The judge made it abundantly clear that if anybody ignores this ruling there will be sanctions imposed, and there will be severe penalties," said Alex Brito, an attorney representing Don King Productions in the case. "I would have to assume that they're going to honor the court's ruling and whatever statements they've made to the contrary are not reflective of what they actually intend to do."

The Mayorga-Thomas bout has been in question since DKP followed up cease-and-desist letters with a motion for injunctive relief and a complaint against Mayorga for breach of contract, and against Shine Fights for interfering with that contract.

On Wednesday Shine Fights released a statement in which CEO Devin Price dismissed the complaint as "smoke and mirrors" and "trickerations" on the part of King, while also vowing that the fight would go forward.

Following the ruling in favor of DKP's motion, Brito said court proceedings would continue against Mayorga and Shine Fights regardless of whether the fight goes ahead as planned.

"We're going to be essentially prosecuting the claim of breach of contract by Mr. Mayorga and the claim of interference with that contract by Shine Fights. We'll need to pursue those claims going forward as we would in other case."

Update: Shine Fights 3 has been canceled.