In the aftermath of UFC 83, many questions were being asked by much of the MMA community. Most people would believe that those questions revolved around what Georges St. Pierre will do next, or where does Rich Franklin go from here? There were fans adamantly asking when St. Pierre would take on Anderson Silva in a “super fight”, and others wondering when the UFC would hit Canada once again. I also asked these questions, but I also asked myself “What the hell was Kalib Starnes doing?”.

That may have been answered today by a huge Sherdog forum thread, props to BloodyElbow's Michael Rome for the find. Yeah, yeah.. I know, why would I trust a Sherdog forum thread? It's easy. Either Kalib Starnes went into the cage with a debilitating injury that caused him to fight like he did, or there was something else going on. We saw him take on Alan Belcher with some actual tenacity, yet he runs from Nate Quarry?

The thread mentions that Starnes was on the last fight of his UFC contract, and he was not compensated by the UFC for the injuries he sustained during his fight with Kendall Grove on The Ultimate Fighter. Amazingly, the UFC declined to pay for his injuries even though the injury occurred “on the show”. Starnes protested the UFC's actions by running from Quarry and making the fight completely worthless for the fans and the UFC. According to one post, a press conference will be held at his gym on Wednesday to announce this series of events and reasoning behind the way he fought.

While I may not completely believe this reason for such a terrible performance, it's hard to discount it. The fight was not a fight. It was Nate Quarry winning, and Kalib Starnes trying to look like he was fighting, taking some damage, then running around the cage to avoid damage. The big problem here is that Kalib Starnes is not a bad fighter. He's got range, decent striking, good ground skills, and he usually hangs tough in the face of adversity. He doesn't fold up like a chair.

Something went wrong here. Whether this “no compensation” story holds up or Kalib had some type of nagging injury, there is no way a veteran like Kalib Starnes was just that terribly matched up against Nate Quarry. If this whole story about money ends up being true, what a ridiculous way to stick it to the UFC. Not only did you screw the fans over in Canada from seeing a great fight, but what about those fans that actually believed you could beat Quarry or get yourself back into a position to continue in the UFC? Obviously, that wasn't a priority and that's probably why it was mentioned on The Savage Dog Show that Starnes would retire. Leaving the sport of mixed martial arts with the most disgraceful performance I've seen in a long, long time is no way to depart from something you have loved for so long.

UPDATE: Dana White cuts Kalib Starnes from the UFC for his performance...