Kalib Starnes: “The Running Man”

Kalib Starnes: “The Running Man”

By: Christina Sears

searstina@hotmail.com

If you weren’t present at the Bell Centre in Montreal, or (like me) you were working the night of the fights and couldn’t even catch the paper view. BY NOW you should at least have heard of the bout between Nate Quarry and Kalib Starnes at UFC 83.

In round one, Quarry puts the pressure on Starnes early just pushing the fight forward. And for the first 50 seconds it really just looks like Starnes is using the space in the cage to move around and stay loose. HOWEVER after the first minute in the round it’s clear that wasn’t the case.

The more Quarry came forward with some combos the more we seen Starnes back up and circle out. Quarry was hitting some pretty hard kicks that Starnes wasn’t even attempting to block or even avoid and ate every one of them all three rounds.

Anytime there was a clinch it was usually Quarry against the cage while Starnes basically working just to get away again.

According to Mike Goldberg Starnes has never lost a fight in Canada, it makes me wonder how he could choke now. You’re in front of 22,000 people in your country (which is every fighters dream to be with a crowd of people from your own country), not only that it was the FIRST ever UFC PPV in Canada. Win or lose every Canadian on that card should have been just fighting their heart out to put on a good show for the fans who not only paid a good chunk of change to be there in the Bell Centre BUT also those who paid the $50.00 to watch the PPV.

When I seen the highlights of this particular fight and I seen Quarry put his hand in front of his face and start punching like a tard I couldn’t help but wonder what the rest of the fight looked like. And then the emails started pouring in from my American Friends about the bout, and it was the hot topic around the water cooler at work

What shocked me is after the round ended and both fighters went to their corners, Starnes was breathing heavy? And I couldn’t help but wonder, “Why are you breathing so heavy… your not doing anything.”

At the end of round three, when we knew that Quarry took all three rounds (shocking enough 30/24 for all of them), BUT what shocked me the most is Starnes allowed Quarry to not only imitate the running man, but also he sat there for the ten seconds that was left on the clock and just mocked Starnes. Starnes just sat there and didn’t even attempt to do ANYTHING? Not a head kick… not a punch… not a kick… HE didn’t even move forward?

The crowd in the bell centre wasn’t shy about how they felt either, anytime the big screen went to Starnes an echo of boos hit every corner of the Bell Centre in Montreal, and when it switched back to Quarry it was the exact opposite. The Canadian crowd wasn’t picking their Canadian favorites, they were cheering and booing for those fighters who put on a good fight.

Although I’m not a fan of show boating at all and really what Quarry did COULD be considered show boating I can understand how frustrating it probably was to train your butt off for one of the biggest PPV’s and be on a card like that, make the weight, just to have an opponent coward his way though the fight while you do everything you can to not only make the fight a good one, but to also win. It bothered me more when I heard Starnes say something like “Why aren’t you fighting faggot? Fuck You.”

 

What did he expect he had no heart or drive in that fight, sure you’re a fighter and from experience I know a lot of people do chirp more then their fair share and probably couldn’t even take a fight in a cage HOWEVER, in the same sense… he didn’t really do much and just gave those who chirp more fuel for their fire.

In an article I read on mmasplater.com Starnes talks about the fight and his feelings on it saying:

“…I would like to apologize to my coaches, trainers and the fans for what happened. It was by far the worst fight of my career, much to the credit of my opponent who proved to be a real monster in the ring, I think that they should keep him in a cave somewhere and feed him raw meat!”

 

The person who wrote the article that was on mmasplatter.com didn’t feel that Quarry should be considered a high level fighter saying, “No disrespect to Quarry, but I wouldn’t be labeling him as an elite level fighter in the division right now.”

I think Nate Quarry has improved and looks good, obviously all fighters can get even better there is never an “expert” out there in the world of MMA everything inter twines with each other. I notice that the UFC commentators are always calling everyone a “world class fighter” with “world class…” whatever they specialize in. BUT in reality what we have seen in MMA you can’t be a one dimensional fighter, a fighter has to be very well rounded and part of being well rounded (in my opinion) is being humble and accepting new ways and variations of doing things from many people. Keeping an open mind and learning from everyone is what I think is “world class.”

Starnes also goes on to say:

“This sport is as much about losing as it is about winning. There is a winner and a loser in every fight. I tried to win b

 

“During the fight I received a broken bone in my right foot and I find out tomorrow if I need to have surgery and get a pin put through it so that it will heal properly. I also have severe bruising on my left thigh, lumps on my head, a fat black eye, a sprained jaw and damage to the nerves in my molars.”

I guess maybe Starnes psyched himself out before he even stepped in the cage, knowing Quarry’s history, watching his tapes, and reading about his rep and stats… PLUS the nerves of it being in your home court of Canada, everyone watching you etc. You will be surprised how much that takes out of a fighter and sometimes not all fighters can handle it.

I’m glad Starnes rethinking being a fighter, because it’s not really the first time nerves and what not got to him. It happened on TUF too.

Video: Kalib Starnes VS Nate Quarry

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