(Remember when Kalib’s claim to fame was this cut?)

The Fight Network picks up the blue ribbon for being the first to get Kalib Starnes’s side of the story. In a new interview, Starnes does his best to defend himself and debunk some rumors…

On why he jogged around the Octagon for 15 minutes: “Right now, I have a broken foot [that] I sustained with the first kick I threw in the fight…I can barely walk. [Quarry] totally destroyed my thigh with those kicks. I’m not about to stand there and get smashed to pieces. After I knew my foot was broken, I was trying to back up and work off the jab and keep moving so I didn’t get knocked out.”

On the reports that his performance was a protest: “Any report or rumor that I came on any radio station to comment on the fight or circumstances surrounding the fight or in reference to the UFC or Dana White is completely false.”

On his release from the UFC: “[UFC matchmaker] Joe Silva told me that it usually takes a couple of days for their legal department to complete the paperwork and that he would send me all of the paperwork to indicate that my contract has been dissolved. Later on in the afternoon, after I had spoken to Joe Silva, a story was released by some reporter from Yahoo! in which Dana White said that he had released me from my contract. I received no documentation on that, and it came after I asked to be released…I couldn’t be happier than to be released from the most oppressive contract I’ve ever been under in my life.”

On Dana White: “In my opinion, it was inappropriate to make public statements regarding my character and my future and so on the way that he has, especially without having the courage and the respect to call me up and speak with me personally. All of these comments come from a man that has never had a fight in his entire life who claims to be the ultimate authority on fighting and courage…Dana White wouldn’t stand and trade with a guy [like Quarry] who had an 80 or 90 percent knockout ratio with injuries like I had Saturday night…Maybe [White] thinks that character assassination might prevent me from moving on and fighting for another organization or carrying on a career. If he thinks it’s appropriate to attack me, it isn’t.”

So, lots to cover here. A broken foot seems like a logical explanation for what we saw on Saturday night, except for the fact that a broken foot would probably cause someone to limp around for the rest of the fight, and maybe grimace in pain once in a while — not effortlessly glide backwards while displaying zero signs of injury. (Maybe his foot’s spirit was broken?) If he truly was in pain and knew he couldn’t mount a decent offense/defense against Quarry, why didn’t he stay in his corner after the first or second round? Stopping due to injury looks a lot more respectable then retreating for a full three rounds. As for this “work off the jab” business…whose jab? Quarry’s? Again, a logical explanation that falls apart once you rewatch the fight.

Maybe it was in poor taste for Dana White to talk to Kevin Iole about Starnes’s dismissal before Kalib himself, but it didn’t seem like he was doing that to sabotage Starnes’s future prospects; he was just venting anger, Dana-style. Meanwhile, Kalib goes into the old “you can’t fire me because I quit” routine. Starnes has voiced his frustration with the UFC’s contracts and salaries in the past, and told The Fight Network “they’re paying the wrong guy $10,000 to get his brain smashed in.” Earning $10,000 to put your ass on the line would certainly make you low-paid (especially after paying taxes and your training camp, etc.), but there’s a difference between low-paid and underpaid. And nobody gets more than $10,000 per fight in MMA unless they’ve proved themselves in some way. Starnes hasn’t yet, and he’ll find that the grass is just as brown on the other side.