A professional mixed martial artist since 2001 when debuted in the sport with a TKO victory over Drew McFedries, Quarry eventually found his way into the ufc after his brief stint on the TUF show, where he was sidelined early in the season due to injury. He was invited back into the promotion and scored a TKO victory over fellow TUF veteran Lodune Sincaid at the season’s finale show.

Stoppage victories over Shonie Carter and Pete Sell later set up a title match between Quarry and then middleweight champion, Rich Franklin.

Though Nate was unsuccessful in capturing the championship, he remained a viable player in the middleweight division up until recently when he suffered a devastating TKO loss to Jorge Rivera. The wear and tear over the years have left Quarry questioning ‘just how much longer can I do this?’ And for that reason, at 38-years-old, Nate might think it’s time to hang it up.

“I’m definitely considering it,” Quarry said of retirement while speaking with MMAJunkie.com. “I’m not sure which pathway I’m going to take. For me, life has always been a series of crossroads. I’ve been fighting for 12 years now. It’s been a very tough road.”

The loss to Rivera, another talented striker much like Quarry, has especially weighed on his mind the most. “The Rock” had received advice initially from his daughter, Ciera, to hang it up once and for all.

“It really bother her, the beating I took,” he said. “She’s of the mindset I’ve done enough. I’ve taken us from nothing, and we now live in a nice neighborhood and have a nice life.”

What do you think MMA peeps? In your humble opinion, should Quarry hang it up? He’s still largely undecided, but giving it serious thought. He has assisted Chris Leben in his last four training camps in preparation for his fights, and would like to continue along that some route, so he will still be involved. Sound off in the comment section below.

Said bout, a middleweight affair against Jorge Rivera against fellow banger Alessio Sakara has stayed alive. The bout will mark a true push for each competitor, as one another will look for contenders’ status in a crowded 185-pound division, dominated by Anderson Silva–though Chael Sonnen might argue the point.

UFC 118 takes place in Boston, Mass., Rivera’s hometown. The 185-pound veteran is based out of Team Sityodtong, under the tutelage of Kru Mark Dellagrotte.

Rivera has seen a resurgence in his lengthy and storied career, and for the first time has been able to string together a 3-fight win streak inside the octagon. After a split-decision victory over Nissen Osterneck, “The Conquistador” was able to put together two back-to-back TKO victories over the likes of Rob Kimmons and fellow “The Ultimate Fighter” veteran Nate Quarry, respectively.

Sakara too, has had the benefit of posting three in a row as well, starting with a head kick, knockout victory over Joe Vedepo, Alessio put together quality wins beginning with a split decision win over former 185-pound title challenger Thales Leites, and then the grizzly, emaciated, veteran–James Irvin, by first round TKO.

Both Rivera and Alessio are on their best standings since their respective inceptions into the UFC, and will now vie for a spot towards contender status within the UFC, which is slowly thinning since Anderson Silva has run through most top-flight competition in the weight class.

With that said, who do you think holds the key to victory in this match up? Who would you like to see the winner challenge next? And who do you think holds the best shot at defeating the 185-pound kingpin that is “The Spider”?

This seemed like a pretty good match-up on paper. Starnes had just rebounded from a TKO loss to Yushin Okami with a Unanimous Decision win over Chris Leben. Both men are very talented UFC mainstays and remain that way to this day. If Starnes was looking to cement his status in the UFC as a potential title contender one day, a win over veteran Nate Quarry would make a strong statement. Meanwhile, “The Rock” was in the middle of a comeback following a highlight-reel KO loss to Rich Franklin and subsequent back surgery that put him on the shelf for almost two years. Quarry had just finished KO’ing Pete Sell, and with another big finish he would have also cemented his status as a potential title contender.

Both men had relatively little to lose but quite a lot to gain should they come out of the fight with an emphatic KO or submission. In a perfect world, this would have given both men all the motivation they would ever need in order to steal the show and make this fight memorable. Not only that, but Starnes would have the fans on his side, since their fight was taking place in Canada and Starnes is from British Columbia. In addition to all that was already at stake, national pride seemed to be working its way into this fight. So the fight had all the right ingredients… except for the simple fact that Kalib Starnes didn’t want to fight.

I’ve heard many reasons (more like excuses) for Kalib’s poor performance. Some say he was protesting how little he was getting paid. Others say he had some type of injury and was playing it safe. I say: who the hell cares? It doesn’t matter what his reasoning was, all that matters is that he turned in one of the worst performances in UFC history. Starnes did little more than backpedal for the majority of the fight, to the point where the heavily partisan Canadian crowd began cheering the American Nate Quarry. I don’t think anyone will soon forget Nate Quarry busting out the Running Man in one of his last attempts to get Kalib to engage, only to be greeted with a middle-finger salute by Starnes. That lone finger seemed to be pointing at the MMA world as a whole, not just Quarry. And the MMA world returned that salute tenfold. Not only was Starnes ostracized and immediately given the axe by the UFC, his performance was so atrocious that it’s become a running joke to reference Starnes whenever an opponent seems gun-shy in a fight and is unwilling to engage.

Regardless of whatever record he has and whatever fighters he’s beat once all is said and done, this moment in time will forever stand out as the defining moment of Kalib Starnes. There’s simply no coming back from a performance like this, and that’s what makes it an “Infamous Moment in MMA History”.

So what about you, fans and friends? What are your opinions on the fight, and is there anything you’d like to see me cover in future editions of IMMMA?

The addition of Caol Uno (25-13-5)to the UFC seems to have become a failed venture. His loss last night to Gleison Tibau (18-6) was one sided and will likely cause the release of Uno from the UFC. Uno offered up nothing in the way of offense and was an easy and much needed win for Tibau.

“The Real Deal” Ross Pearson (16-5-1) looked very sharp in his decision victory over Dennis Siver (15-7). Ross has been known to step in and engage in a slug fest but against Siver, a very dangerous fighter, he had a good game plan. He moved in and out and never stayed engaged to long. He had great head movement and his feints kept Sivers off guard and somewhat confused.

My only critique of Pearson’s performance was his lack of killer instinct. He seemed to hurt Dennis a couple times in the fight and rather than push forward and try for a finish he sat back playing it a bit safe. Granted he got the win but as he moves up in the division he will need to use a similar strategy but also be able to incorporate that finishing instinct. He could go a long way in the UFC given ample amount of time.

While I thought Joe Rogan was a little off his game last night and flat out wrong about a couple of things I will discuss later, he was dead on about Jorge Rivera (18-7). I have never seen Jorge look so good in a fight. He dominated the guy I picked to win the fight, “Rock” Nate Quarry (12-4). He picked him apart in the fight once he found his range. Nate did land some solid leg kicks but again, once Jorge found the range he unloaded on Nate with power shots that seemed to rock the “Rock” each time. I also thought Jorge looked lighter on his feet and seemed to take some solid punches better than he has in the past. This could be the start of a new fight life for Jorge and I am excited to see where he goes from here.

Then there was MMA Gospel fan favorite “Skyscraper” Stefan Struve (16-4) taking on “Big Country” Roy Nelson (15-4) in the co-main event. I think Struve can be a top contender in the heavyweight division in the future. He is young and the sky is the limit for him, no pun intended. Although in order for him to reach his full potential he will need to learn to utilize his height and reach advantage to his fullest. There is no reason Nelson should have gotten inside on Struve with very little effort. Struve needed to use his jab to keep Nelson at bay and instead of the leg kicks he should be using the front kick to the body. These are weapons a man of his size should be using to keep the shorter opponents outside their range so he can pick them apart.

Having said that I don’t feel he gave that fight to Nelson. I think Nelson worked hard and knew exactly what he had to do in order to win. It is hard to judge his performance because the fight only went 39 seconds but that is two big knock outs for Roy, a man many said was to fat and to slow for the UFC.

Now we move to the main event between Fighters.com seventh-ranked “KenFlo” Kenny Florian (12-4) and “The Fireball Kid” Takanori Gomi (28-6). This is where my critique of Joe Rogan comes in to play.

If you listened to Joe and Mike Goldberg you would think Kenny was destroying Gomi and that just was not the case. Granted Florian did a very good job in the first round using his jab to throw off Gomi’s plan of attack. That and his fast movement in and out of the pocket kept Gomi from unleashing anything substantial but then again Gomi has never been much of a defensive striker.In the past he has eaten plenty of punches in order to get inside to deliver his death blow. However in the first round he was blanked.

The second round told a different story though. Gomi was able to slip Florian’s jab and use a very effective one-two counter that had KenFlo putting on the brakes when working his own counter. It did not fully stop Kenny but it was working and proved to me that if Gomi were to take his training more seriously he could very well make a come back.

In the end though his ground game is still just awful as it always has been and Kenny’s seems to be getting better. The worst part for Florian is that he is stuck in a division where the champion is seemingly heads and tails above the rest.

All in all the Fight Night was full of exciting fights and fantastic finishes. Some shocking and others, well, not so much.

Florian weighed the limit at 156 pounds and Gomi weighed 155 pounds.

The Ultimate Fighter 10 champion “Big Country” Roy Nelson (14-4) and 6? 11? heavyweight prospect “SkySkraper” Stefan Struve (23-3) both also made weight for their matchup.  Nelson weighed 263 pounds while Struve weighed 248 pounds.

Fight night 21 will air live on SpikeTV at 8:00 PM EST.  The rest of the weights below:

Nate Quarry (186) vs. Jorge Rivera (186)
Ross Pearson (156) vs. Dennis Siver (156)
Rafaello Oliveira (156) vs. Andre Winner (156)
Ronys Torres (155) vs. Jacob Volkmann (155)
Rob Emerson (154) vs. Nik Lentz (155)
Gleison Tibau (156) vs. Caol Uno (156)
Lucio Linhares (184) vs. Yushin Okami (184)
Gerald Harris (186) vs. Mario Miranda (186)
Charlie Brenneman (170) vs. Jason High (170)

After the victory, Quarry described his strategy as, “Simple.  Go and fight!”

But, after a tentative kickoff for both fighters, it was Credeur who landed several right body kicks and dodged most of Quarry’s jabs and straights to Credeur’s body.  Late in the round, Credeur staggered and finally dropped Quarry with a straight left,

Credeur said, “A lot of people call me a jiu-jitsu guy and I wanted to come out here and show I’m a lot more than that.”

Credeur hopped on Quarry’s back and sank a rear naked choke after the knock down, but Quarry rolled to full guard, bloody dripping from his nose.  Credeur obviously won the first round.

Again, Credeur batted Quarry around with a pair of hooks to begin round two, but ran smack-dab into a Quarry right hand as Quarry retreated.  Quarry cranked right hands from top position, but Credeur’s active guard blunted much of Quarry’s power and limited the damage done.

In the third, Credeur backed Quarry up with a straight right and left body kick, but Quarry jawed Credeur with a right hook.  Quarry had his right hand dialed in the entire final round, but Credeur walked through several flush shots.  Finally, Credeur pulled guard to avoid Quarry’s barrage, then rolled to an attempted heel hook.  But, Quarry rolled free to half mount and pummelled Credeur’s body.  Referee Herb Dean stood the fighters near the end of the round, but the exhausted warriors did little damage to each other in fight’s final moments.

After the loss was announced, Credeur promised, “‘Crazy’ Tim is coming back, baby!”