It was a great night for mixed martial arts on Saturday in Montreal, as an enthusiastic sellout crowd of 21,390 packed the Bell Centre to watch hometown hero Georges St. Pierre reclaim the UFC welterweight title from Matt Serra at UFC 83.
It wasn't such a good night, though, for Kalib Starnes, who spent most of the evening running from Nate Quarry in their middleweight bout. A native of Surrey, B.C., Starnes was booed heavily by the Canadian crowd that had been boisterous in its support of all the other Canadians on the card.
After losing a unanimous decision on scores of 30-26, 30-27, and an unheard-of 30-24, Starnes received even worse news: He was cut from his contract by UFC president Dana White.
"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.
Quarry pressed the action the entire fight as Starnes simply circled and refused to engage. Late in the third round, Quarry pretended to run like he was a track star in trying to find a way to get Starnes to fight.
After the bout, members of Quarry's corner were complaining to Starnes about his lack of activity. Starnes shouted an expletive at one member of Quarry's team, called him a derogatory term for homosexuals and challenged him to a fight.
Starnes couldn't be reached for comment about his performance, but Quarry expressed disappointment with Starnes' lack of effort.
A one-time contestant on The Ultimate Fighter, Starnes was 8-2 going into the bout and had had quality victories over Chris Leben and Jason MacDonald.
"I think if you're fighting in the UFC, you've got to come to fight," Quarry told UFC.com in a post-fight interview. "I would much rather get knocked out than lose a decision running backwards. No disrespect to Kalib. I know the stress really gets to you. A lot of guys, they focus on not wanting to lose instead of wanting to win. I didn't mean to disrespect him in any way. I just got frustrated because you can't fight when somebody's moving backward that fast."
