THE CANADIAN PRESS
Kalib Starnes is returning to the scene of the crime.
The 36-year-old from Surrey, B.C., will be back at the Bell Centre on Saturday to fight fellow former UFC veteran Patrick (The Predator) Cote in the main event of Ringside 10.
Starnes left Montreal with a target on his back the last time he fought there at UFC 83 in April 2008. Seemingly reluctant to engage against Nate (Rock) Quarry, he back-peddled for most of the fight and paid the price for it.
He exited a loser — and Public Enemy No. 1.
Quarry mocked him, the 21,000-plus crowd turned on him and he was vilified by parts of the MMA world. He received hate mail for months afterwards, calling him gutless, pathetic, a bitch, coward, pussy, joke, disgrace and far worse.
There was even an MMA website called Watch Kalib Run.
Starnes (12-5-1) admitted later it was "a terrible performance." But it wasn’t helped by the fact he broke his foot in the fight and his strategy failed miserably. By the end, he was in survival mode.
The judges scored it an embarrassing 30-26, 30-27, 30-24 for Quarry, whose corner traded barbs with Starnes in an ugly aftermath to an ugly main card bout. The UFC quickly parted ways with the fighter, saying it had cut him while Starnes said he asked to be released so he could move on.
It might have broken a lesser man. Starnes got on with his life.
By going back to the Bell Centre, he knows he is stepping into the belly of the beast this weekend.
But as a coach as well as a fighter, he sees it as a unique chance to test his mental mettle — and learn from dealing with the stress so he can pass the knowledge on.
"This is a real test for me, this one," he told The Canadian Press. "Because it’s going into a place where I’ve had a dramatic failure in the past. And to be able to go back to that same venue and to fight somebody there, I’m going to be under a lot of pressure.
"I’ll be the underdog and hated really by the crowd coming in," he added with a chuckle. "He’s the Quebecer, he’s from Montreal, he’s going to be the favourite … I’ll be booed all the way to the ring probably.
"Being able to deal with that pressure and stress and to come out of it and perform up to my ability, that’s what I’m looking forward to doing. I have no thoughts about victory or losing or anything. I just feel like going in there and dealing with that pressure. And I want to put myself back in that situation and I want to kind of grow from it."
He says he hasn’t thought of Saturday’s fight as closure.
"But it may be," he added. "I can’t think of myself being put under more pressure than I will be this weekend and that’s something I look forward to."
Starnes is 4-2 since the Quarry loss, fighting three times last year. But these days fighting is just part of his life.
He recently opened his own gym, Aegis Athletics, in the Richmond Sports Club where he teaches Brazilian jiu-jitsu, mixed martial arts and does personal training.
He enjoys working with kids or average people who just want to get in shape, lose weight or recover from an injury.
"It’s fulfilling to go and help someone do that, you know," he said.
When not working, he spends time with his eight-year-old daughter Sienna. While he occasionally watches MMA on TV to see a favoured athlete, he prefers to read.
Comedies and documentaries are more up his alley.
"I’m more of a nerd," he said with a laugh.
Starnes has always been his own man. During his UFC days, he listed his heroes as Noam Chomsky and Bertrand Russell and talked happily of seeing Japan’s cultural heritage in Kyoto during a trip to the Far East.
A past website listed such favourite books as "Killing Hope: U.S. Military And CIA Interventions Since World War II" by William Blum, "Planet of Slums" by Mike Davis, "Guns, Germs and Steel" by Jared Diamond, "The Future of Life" by Edward O. Wilson and "The New Nuclear Danger" by Helen Caldicott.
Starnes was a member of Season 3 of "The Ultimate Fighter, where he suffered a rib injury in the semifinals and lost to eventual winner Kendall Grove.
He went 2-3 in the UFC, defeating Danny Abbadi and earning fight of the night honours for his UFC 71 victory over Chris (The Crippler) Leben.
A tough customer, he has survived a fractured fibula, broken nose, jawbone infection, torn shoulder muscle and more than 20 stitches to close a gaping wound on his forehead.
Not to mention the broken foot and torrent of hate that followed the Quarry fight.
He says that night, as ugly as it got, is part of him.
"I’ve learned a lot from that experience," he said. "I think I’ve grown a lot personally and as an athlete. I feel very good.
"If I could go back and change it, I don’t think I would, you know. I think it’s something that in the end will make me a better, stronger person."
Starnes says he isn’t sure why the piling on happened after UFC 83, but he points to today’s media and "just the culture we live it."
He recalls watching a recent report on CNN on the tragedy in Japan and seriousness of the situation at a nuclear reactor. Then across the bottom of the screen flashed a Lindsay Lohan update.
"It’s just a world where people’s priorities are maybe not where they should be," he chuckled.
Starnes says he rarely thinks back to the Quarry fight.
Some fans still recognize him "more for that than for the other things I’ve done and accomplished in my life," he said.
"But I don’t get it that often any more, no."
Cote (13-7) was cut by the UFC after suffering a third straight loss, to Tom Lawlor at UFC 121 in October.
