Just about every professional athlete has a bad night. From MMA to boxing, to basketball, there is no such thing as the 'perfect' athlete. Fortunately for the average athlete, bad nights aren't all that memorable, and the effects of bad performances usually dissipate quickly. Such is not the case for Canadian Kalib Starnes who committed career suicide on Saturday night in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

A TUF veteran with a key win over Chris Leben, Starnes has always appeared to posses a questionable will to succeed. On the SpikeTV reality show, he battled Kendall Grove and quit mid fight citing a rib injury. He was stopped by Alan Belcher at UFC 77 after Belcher was able to open up a nice cut on Starnes. Though seemingly out of his control, Starnes suffered a minor melt down when informed he would not be able to continue, screaming profanities at his own corner men, who apparently questioned the fighters heart themselves. As bad as things seemed to be for the Canadian fighter, they could, and would get much worse.

Set to battle in his home country of Canada, Kalib found himself a slot on the main card at UFC 83: Serra VS GSP 2. His opponent? The always game Nate Quarry. Initially fans went crazy for this match up. Two guys who can strike, and have had some TV time. Little could anyone guess that Starnes would do just about anything in his power to NOT fight Quarry.

For three rounds Kalib retreated, and just about refused to engage with Quarry. Quarry, always willing to put it on the line, chased Starnes for fifteen minutes, attempting to force the action. Though Quarry was able to land some beautiful leg kicks, and some solid punches as well, he was never within reaching distance of a stoppage: Kalib refused to allow that. Despite some of the sports more entertaining in-cage antics, Kalib refused to be goaded into exchanges. He simply would not fight Nate. The frustration for Quarry was evident, but to his credit, "The Rock" never ceased his attempted attack. The fight was, in truth, one of the worst fights to ever make it on the main card of a UFC event. To make matters even worse, Starnes unleashed a derogatory decorated rant at Quarry's corner men after the fight.

Days after the fight UFC president Dana White made it known publicly that Kalib Starnes has been released from his UFC contract. "He just doesn't belong in the UFC and after his performance the other night, he should consider a new line of work" stated White. Sadly enough, it's a safe bet that there are a whole lot of fans out there who agree with White. Starnes on the other hand claims he requested release from his contract, and Joe Silva granted that request. Starnes has made some statements indicating he was unhappy with his financial contract with the UFC. Running away from an opponent is one hell of a way to try and garner consideration for a pay raise. Apparently Starnes didn't plot this one out to well.

Where does Kalib go from here? Who knows. However, it's hard to imagine any serious fight promotion would look to hire a fighter who refuses to fight. Mixed martial artists are paid to go to war, something Starnes absolutely refused to do last Saturday, and something he's refused to do in the past as well. With one lone significant victory on his ledger, and a seriously questionable heart, Starnes may have run his way right out of a potentially lucrative MMA career. One thing is absolutely certain, we'll never see Kalib inside the Octagon again.

Perhaps we should all breathe a sigh of relief.

Learn more about this author, Matthew Molgaard.
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