Last Friday at the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark Delaware, an MMA event was supposed to take place under the banner of Diamond World Fights. The event, which was called "Mega Mayhem 2018", was to reach 100 million homes across PPV. The production of this event and PR was superb. Fighters were flown from all over the country with a promise of a big payday. Since Delaware does not have a boxing commission, the event was sanctioned by the World Kickboxing Association. After four amateur kickboxing bouts, the MMA card was set to begin. From the moment after the last bout, it became clear that something was wrong; in fact, the warning signs were actually much earlier, when promoter Gail Stallings Minor did not show up. Antoinette Blake, who was hired to do PR for the event, had not seen or heard from Gail. I myself tried contacting the night before, but got no response.
After the last kickboxing bout, Michael Youngblood, heavyweight fighter from Atlanta Georgia, came to the cage without his gloves on. In the background near the cage, you could see his opponent for the evening (Shannon and Michael were supposed to fight in the main event), Shannon "The Cannon" Ritch arguing with someone from the Diamond World Fight staff. It was unclear to me and my colleagues what was going on. Soon after, the officials from the WKA started leaving, and not too long after the cage crew started taking apart the cage. Fans were in disbelief. The ring announcer announced that the event was cancelled and those who purchased tickets in advance would get a "partial refund." Myself and the people I was with were confused and angry at the same time. We attempted to go backstage to speak to the fighters, but were not allowed access. We ended up speaking to Michael Youngblood as he was leaving the arena. Michael was promised a lot of money for this fight- 40,000. The same was promised to Shannon, who confirmed that with me later on in the night. Michael had received a check for 16,000 that would not be good until the following day. He was told he would get the rest at a later date. The only other fighters "paid" were Jonathan Cobb and Shannon Ritch. Well, the very next day all the checks bounced. No fighter was paid a single dime. I've heard from fighters that have paid thousands of dollars out of their own pockets for travel and medicals only to be screwed over like this. According to Shannon, the promoter paid a 10,000 bond to hold event, but this is not going to be available to the fighters.
The horror stories of fighters from this event are truly heartbreaking. Guys like Shannon have fought through the dark ages to make sure this doesn't happen in 2018. Surely, there must be something we can do. Is it possible for someone to set up a Go Fund Me page to help some of the fighters from this card? Please PM me. Let's try to help these fighters because it doesn't look like they are going to get anything from the conartists.
After the last kickboxing bout, Michael Youngblood, heavyweight fighter from Atlanta Georgia, came to the cage without his gloves on. In the background near the cage, you could see his opponent for the evening (Shannon and Michael were supposed to fight in the main event), Shannon "The Cannon" Ritch arguing with someone from the Diamond World Fight staff. It was unclear to me and my colleagues what was going on. Soon after, the officials from the WKA started leaving, and not too long after the cage crew started taking apart the cage. Fans were in disbelief. The ring announcer announced that the event was cancelled and those who purchased tickets in advance would get a "partial refund." Myself and the people I was with were confused and angry at the same time. We attempted to go backstage to speak to the fighters, but were not allowed access. We ended up speaking to Michael Youngblood as he was leaving the arena. Michael was promised a lot of money for this fight- 40,000. The same was promised to Shannon, who confirmed that with me later on in the night. Michael had received a check for 16,000 that would not be good until the following day. He was told he would get the rest at a later date. The only other fighters "paid" were Jonathan Cobb and Shannon Ritch. Well, the very next day all the checks bounced. No fighter was paid a single dime. I've heard from fighters that have paid thousands of dollars out of their own pockets for travel and medicals only to be screwed over like this. According to Shannon, the promoter paid a 10,000 bond to hold event, but this is not going to be available to the fighters.
The horror stories of fighters from this event are truly heartbreaking. Guys like Shannon have fought through the dark ages to make sure this doesn't happen in 2018. Surely, there must be something we can do. Is it possible for someone to set up a Go Fund Me page to help some of the fighters from this card? Please PM me. Let's try to help these fighters because it doesn't look like they are going to get anything from the conartists.
