By James Brydon, Sportsnet.ca
MONTREAL — Heart trumped patriotism on Saturday night when the UFC held its Canadian debut in Montreal.
That much was evident from the record crowd of 21,000 who packed the sold-out Bell Centre looking for a quality show from some of the top mixed martial arts fighters in the world at UFC 83.
As much as the fans, from across all of Canada, had come to see and cheer on many of their countrymen — eight to be exact — it turned out they were there to support the fighters who gave the best performances on the grandest stage in MMA.
The biggest proof came in the matchup between Canadian Kalib Starnes and Nate Quarry. Starnes, a Surrey, B.C. native, entered the Octagon to cheers but left to a chorus of boos after he barely mustered an offence through three rounds of mostly uninspiring combat.
While Quarry didn’t land too many blows of his own, the American was the fighter pushing the pace most of the time, with Starnes constantly on the retreat. The fight drew numerous boos and chants of "Boring! Boring!" but Quarry was clearly gaining the side of the fans as the fight went on.
He won over the crowd for good at the end as he mocked a still back-peddling Starnes by intertwining his arms in front of his own face and swinging one side-to-side like a pendulum for the final 20 seconds.
"I don’t know, I figured if I did that, he’d have to hit me," Quarry jokingly said when asked in the post-fight press conference what that was that he was doing.
After the final bell ended, the crowd cheered every time Quarry’s image was shown on the big screen, while Starnes was booed mercilessly when his image was displayed.
Quarry earned the unanimous decision victory (30-24, 30-27, 30-26) and a new-found following from the fans in La Belle Province.
"I love the crowd," Quarry said. "I knew that the Canadian fans especially, they were going to go for a warrior’s heart more than just who was born (in the country)."
He delighted the viewers even more, continuing his comedic act by using a variation of the famous Rocky IV speech in his final comments before leaving the Octagon: "I guess what I’m trying to say is, if I can change, and you can change, everybody can change."
UFC president Dana White was straightforward in his assessment of Starnes’ disappointing performance.
"It takes two guys to fight," White said in the post-fight press conference. "Nate’s the only one that showed up to fight tonight for that fight. I kept saying through the whole thing if I was Kalib Starnes and I was fighting in my home country, I’d rather get knocked out than run around in circles the whole fight.
"I think Kalib is going to wake up tomorrow and look back at this fight and wish he had fought a different fight."
As expected, the other Canadians on the card heard loud cheers when they were announced before their fights, but they weren’t the only ones.
In the co-main event of the night, former middleweight champion Rich (Ace) Franklin earned one of the bigger crowd reactions of support when he entered the arena and walked toward the Octagon. In fact, at one point a fan grabbed hold of his arm and wouldn’t let go. Franklin needed help from a security official to get free.
Franklin, from Cincinnati, Ohio, said he was pleasantly surprised by the support from the Canadian crowd, even the day before at just the weigh-ins.
"Yesterday at the weigh-ins, the Canadian fans booed everybody that wasn’t Canadian. I was standing beside the curtains with my fingers crossed, like ‘I hope I don’t get booed.’ I got a warm reception, so I was pleased."
And he had nothing to worry about Saturday, apart from a near armbar secured by his opponent Travis Lutter early on. But the fans rallied him to regain the advantage and spurred him on to a TKO win 3:01 into the second round.
Other foreigners earning cheers from the fans following their victories and post-fight comments were past winners of The Ultimate Fighter, Michael Bisping and Mac Danzig. Bisping, a polarizing Englishman who entered the cage to a mixture of cheers and jeers, pumped his fist as a tribute to the Canadian crowd following an entertaining TKO win of his own over Charles McCarthy.
"Merci beaucoup," Bisping declared afterward.
Meanwhile, Danzig, who defeated Toronto’s Mark Bocek in a well-contested and bloody submission victory that fell 12 seconds short of going the distance, said he loves the Canadian fans.
"This my fourth time fighting (in Canada)," said Danzig, who fought for King of the Cage shows in Alberta. "I love fighting here."
In the main event, Georges St. Pierre put an emphatic end to the raucous night by dominating Matt Serra — public enemy No. 1 in Montreal — to recapture the welterweight title.
Serra put on a great effort but in the end the Long Island fighter was overmatched by the highly-motivated St. Pierre in front of the French Canadian’s home crowd.
But even as Serra drew constant boos — and even a chant of "F— you, Serra" in the middle of the second round — he was surprisingly cheered following the bout as he took the defeat graciously.
"It’s better than getting booed," Serra told the media post-fight. "I knew I’d win them over sooner or later.
"At least I went out like a warrior."
