One of the biggest discussions coming out of UFC 83 was the performance–or lack thereof–of Canada native Kalib Starnes. Starnes appeared to spend the majority of his fight running away from UFC vet Nate Quarry. The phrase “running away” may sound like a bit of a stretch, but believe me, it’s not–the dude had his track shoes on.

By the end of the fight, his home country crowd had turned on him. Quarry ended the fight by mocking Starnes’ tactics, doing the “running man” dance as he chased Starnes. Quarry even covered his face with one hand and punched wildly at the air with the other. If you didn’t get a chance to see it, here’s a YouTube video of the scene (which will probably be taken down soon):

Starnes didn’t take kindly to this, and cursed at either Quarry, his corner or the fans–it was hard to tell who he was yelling at. Regardless, it was a pretty ugly outburst that was captured by the PPV cameras. In an interview with Yahoo! Sports today, Dana White made this brief statement regarding Starnes:

“He just doesn’t belong in the UFC and after his performance the other night, he should consider a new line of work,” White said Monday.

According to the article, Starnes was cut from the UFC on Monday.

Starnes didn’t take long to tell his side of the story. Today, in an interview with the Fight Network, Starnes claimed that he asked for his release, and fired back at Dana White:

“[UFC matchmaker] Joe Silva told me that it usually takes a couple of days for their legal department to complete the paperwork and that he would send me all of the paperwork to indicate that my contract has been dissolved,” Starnes said. “Later on in the afternoon, after I had spoken to Joe Silva, a story was released by some reporter from Yahoo! in which Dana White said that he had released me from my contract. I received no documentation on that, and it came after I asked to be released.”

“In my opinion, it was inappropriate to make public statements regarding my character and my future and so on the way that he has, especially without having the courage and the respect to call me up and speak with me personally,” Starnes said. “All of these comments come from a man that has never had a fight in his entire life who claims to be the ultimate authority on fighting and courage. I couldn’t be happier than to be released from the most oppressive contract I’ve ever been under in my life.”

“Right now, I have a broken foot [that] I sustained with the first kick I threw in the fight,” Starnes said. “My leg is purple and black from my knee up, I have a black eye, a sprained jaw, and he’s questioning my desire to fight? If that isn’t enough to satisfy him and the crowd, I can show them the medical report. I can barely walk. [Quarry] totally destroyed my thigh with those kicks. I’m sure a lot of people would rather see me suffer a traumatic brain injury and be rendered unconscious. That’s too bad. If that’s what they want, they’re paying the wrong guy $10,000 to get his brain smashed in.”

“Dana White wouldn’t stand and trade with a guy [like Quarry] who had an 80 or 90 percent knockout ratio with injuries like I had Saturday night,” Starnes said. “He wouldn’t cross the street for $10,000. I don’t have anything to prove to anybody. I’m not about to stand there and get smashed to pieces. After I knew my foot was broken, I was trying to back up and work off the jab and keep moving so I didn’t get knocked out.”

This is a tough situation to read. Starnes’ makes some valid points (Dana White has never had a fight in his life), but that’s really not that important in the grand scheme of things. What IS important are his claims of injury–if he broke his foot on the first kick he threw, how was he able to move so quickly (backwards) throughout the fight? From what I’ve seen, foot injuries are pretty debilitating–perhaps it was only slightly broken or perhaps adrenaline kicked in, but it still seems like Starnes wouldn’t have been able to run away for the whole fight if he broke his foot.

In addition, if he broke his foot, why didn’t he just retire from the fight? The fans probably would have been upset, but that damage could have been repaired by future performances. Now, Starnes has the stigma on him that he’s afraid to fight, which is never a good thing in the world of MMA. After all, fighters carry great respect for each other just because of the hell they put each other through in the cage.

What is clear is that Quarry decimated Starnes’ legs with his kicks. Still, why back up? Starnes is a jiu-jitsu guy, so maybe he should have tried taking it to the ground.

In Starnes’ defense, he has no history of running away from his opponents, so perhaps he really was unable to fight. Still, he should have at least tried. He might have gotten knocked out, but that’s a part of fighting in MMA.

The question now becomes “where will Starnes end up?” With so many new MMA promotions, there’s no doubt that he’ll find a home. Still, how will another promotion market a Starnes fight with the stigma he’s now got?

Tags: Dana White, Kalib Starnes, Nate Quarry, UFC, UFC 83