Kalib Starnes tests positive for marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and amphetamines

[Wawin]

Here's my thoughts and people can say whatever the fuck you want. I've always been a fan of Kalib and I always will be. The guy is man enough to step into the cage and fight with whoever and he deserves respect for that. Getting hit hard fucking sucks and Quarry obviously did that and I can understand why it presented problems for him. Don't give up kalib, learn from this fight and come back stronger cause i know you can man. You obviously have the skills and you have all the potential in the world man. "Learn from the past, live for today and hope for the future!"

[choji]

Originally Posted by Jason Drake

You're a douchebag !

LOL it sounds like your the douche bag (you can't spell). Don't condescend to the people on this forum. You have your job and we have ours. You get hit to get paid, we do X jobs and get paid. We, as fans who paid to watch, are pissed that we had to watch some stupid, juvenile attempt to prove a point. It is a massive company. This is America, although the fight was in Canada. You can not change things. I feel the need to get fighter pay and health care pushed to the brim, but pissing everyone off is the WRONG WAY TO DO THINGS. ATT, UFC and countless sponsors don't want anything to do with you. Prove your point? Does it feel good? Grow up.

[j.treehorn]

Im curious what this has to do with the title

[iowejf]

I guess I better weigh in on this.
Kalib, I'm not trying to be an asshole. You know more about what went on in there with you than anyone else. I'll just go from the information that you provided when I say that if you felt that you had absolutely no answers for a mid-level guy and rather than go down swinging you just run away you really do not seemed to be destined for success in this sport. If you don't have that warrior spirit that will make you fight rather than give up, don't fight. There are plenty of other jobs. Dana told you to find another line of work because he was upset. From what you said, that may be better advice than it would have initially seemed.

[ezvideo24]

Obviously it was not a good performance, but in some cases you left me completely puzzled. For example, after Quarry did his running man, why did you just flick him off instead of hitting him? I understand that your foot was broken at that point, but if you feel like he disrespected you there and you had the opportunity why didn't you just hit him?

[fnog9]

Kalib man, I'm not mad about that fight. Yeah, you ran away a lot, but you took a lot of punishment, and were hurt... so wtf? It was still a fight, and a good display by Quarry,.... just a fight that you lost and that's it.

I guess the guys that say you should have just let yourself get knocked out... maybe they were saying you should have just wilted and took a dive even if you weren't really knocked out. Just to get a stoppage? I don't know. That doesn't seem like a better, or more honorable option to me.

[ocfightfan]

Originally Posted by Kalib Starnes

I have as much right to discuss what fighters are paid as anyone else and I know a lot about the subject having fought for the organization in some capacity seven times. Believe me, you're paid if you win and tossed aside like garbage if you lose. Until these guys learn to market themselves the payouts are going to remain pathetic compared to boxing and the UFC's little traveling circus will roam from town to town with the billionaires raking in the cash while the fighters split up about five percent of the take between them.

Yeah Kalib, you have a right to discuss fighter pay, and yeah, you've been there done that. But I'm not buying the neo-marxist Noam Chomsky BS.

The fact is that the UFC pays, overall, better than boxing. Its true that the top tier guys don't make as much as the top tier guys in boxing, but you are kidding yourself if you think that there are very many boxers making six, seven, or eight figures. Most boxers are making about as much or less than fighters in the UFC, especially when you take UFC bonuses into account.

And lets be clear, nobody put a gun to your head to be a fighter or to work for the UFC. You chose this because you wanted fame and fortune rather than a job. But you didn't win, and you didn't work on your personality and fight hype skills. So now you are no longer working for the UFC.

Now if you are with another organization, making more money, great, congratulations. But if you don't get things together and get back with the UFC I don't see how you will prosper as much as you would if you made yourself into a draw in the UFC.

[MMAth Wiz]

Reading all this makes me feel a bit more sympathetic for Kalib. To fight like that just to "make a statement", as some claimed he was doing, would have been inexcusable. But it sounds like he just became convinced he had no answers for Quarry and got stuck in retreat mode.

I found myself in a fight where I couldn't stand with the guy, he was awkward and he hit hard having almost knocked me out three times in the fight, I couldn't take him down and work my ground game (I got him down only once and just managed to land a few shots because he got up so fast), and so I felt like I could either keep moving or get knocked out. Then late in the third he started to mock me out of frustration, but really at that point, I was just a solidly beaten fighter who was trying not to get knocked out, and had fallen into a pattern that I couldn't get out of. It was the worst athletic performance of my life.

That's a hard position to be in. I sure as hell wouldn't want to just go in there and get knocked out in a fight I was sure was lost . . . but then again, I'm not a professional fighter.

I still can't help but think there had to be a better answer.

[Kurzgan]

Kudos for coming here and explaining to all us keyboard warriors your side of the story. I'll admit I was repulsed by what I saw in the cage that night but if you are man enough to admit to everyone that your gameplan just didn't pan out and you indeed fracture a bone in your foot then that's cool. In all fairness you do have to understand that it was HARD to watch and EASY to be critical of.

But indeed I'm the one sitting on my ass watching the fight. Had I been in there I would have been taking a nap pretty fucking quick.

Great thread title BTW./

[BrianFantana]

Dear Kalib,

I think you have to put yourself in the shoes of people who are (or were) fans of yours for a second. I mean, you obviously realize that there are people who will always hate, but you must also know that there are people who do (or did) want you to succeed. Those people are like me, or at least were.

You see, I was surprised to find out you were on the Ultimate Fighter after having seen you fight out west. I had heard you had told a guy what submission you were going to pull on him before the fight and then you did it. I was impressed. After seeing you tap someone out live, I was a fan.

I think a lot of people had considered you a top contender to win that reality show. But then there was the rib injury. And don't get me wrong, I'm not a pro fighter, not by a long shot. I don't like being punched in the face or really being beat up at all. I especially don't like having my ribs broken. It is in fact, for these exact reasons that I'm not a pro fighter, and perhaps neither should you.

I know, I know, I'm a keyboard warrior. I sit behind a desk and think i know it all. Well, what I do know is that if I got inside an octagon, I would likely Tim Sylvia myself. I would look for a way out of that fight as soon as it didn't go my way. I am what you would call, a lover, not a fighter. Thus, were I fighting someone stronger than me, I would run away from them, I would complain to my cornermen, I would, as I said, look for a way out. If the doctor stepped in during the fight, I would definitely tell him to stop the fight, but I'd do it in a way that didn't make me look like a pussy. As with all things, I never want to look like a pussy. I'll make sure any injury I suffered is the reason I lost (as least, I'll try to make sure people believe it is), etc.

What I'm trying to get at is that being a pro fighter takes guts, and more importantly, to be a successful pro fighter takes the desire to win at all costs. If you get rocked hard and do the fish dance, you grab onto your opponent for dear life and hold on until you can see straight again. If you break your hand, you throw with the other one or take your foe down and elbow their face into the canvas. If you break your foot, you throw everything you can with your hands because last time I checked, it takes hands to punch and feet to run. Basically, if you've got that desire, you can succeed in the upper levels of just about anything. After years of watching you fight, I feel confident saying that you haven't got it.

In summary, I really was a fan of yours. I wanted you to do well. I thought you could make it big and be another Canadian force. Now I believe you should consider a career change.

Peace.