MMA fans may have just seen the fight of the year in UFC 225's main event rematch between Yoel Romero and Robert Whittaker. While the fight itself exceeded all expectations, the murky circumstances surrounding the fight have left the Middleweight division with more questions than clarity in the wake of the title bout.

Who "deserves" to be the Middleweight champion?

Before the fighters even set foot in the cage, Yoel Romero's troublesome weight cut caused ambiguity as to whether the winner of the scheduled title fight could rightfully be called the champion. The challenger initially weighed in at 186 pounds, 1 pound over the championship-bout-mandated 185 pound limit. After an extra hour Yoel weighed in at 185.2 pounds. Though Romero complained that the commission unfairly cut his weigh-in time window short, and while .2 pounds seems negligible, the decision was made that Yoel would not be eligible to become the champion should he win the bout. Romero's difficulty making weight angered many fans who noticed a trend, after Yoel also missed weight in his prior interim title fight against Luke Rockhold earlier this year, and similarly was deemed ineligible to win the interim title after defeating Rockhold (though Yoel could at least retort that the Rockhold fight was a short notice fight, giving him less than adequate time to safely make weight).

Meanwhile, Whittaker's tenure as Middleweight champion has itself been a bit unusual. Whittaker last fought in an interim title fight against Yoel Romero approximately one year ago, which he won by unanimous decision, but suffered a leg injury that sidelined him and robbed him of the opportunity to unify with then-champion Michael Bisping. Instead, Bisping lost the title to Georges St-Pierre, and Whittaker was promoted from interim to undisputed champion when GSP vacated his belt. However, injury again forced Whittaker out of his scheduled first title defense against Luke Rockhold, and Romero substituted for Whittaker on short notice and won in dominant fashion (as mentioned above).

So going into this bout, Whittaker was a champion who has been disappointingly inactive, defending against a challenger who has been impressively active but who had recently struggled to make weight. Whittaker aimed to finish Romero and loudly reassert himself as the unquestioned champion. The normally mellow and polite Whittaker walked out to the cage looking more motivated than ever before, pumping his chest with an uncharacteristically vicious look in his eye.

For the first 2 rounds, Whittaker was largely able to have his way with Romero. The champion repeatedly kicked at Romero's knee, turning Romero's strategy that injured Whittaker's knee in the first bout against him. The threat of low kicks to the leg and body opened up Whittaker's ability to work his boxing to Romero's head, and a stiff punch over Romero's right eye caused the eye to swell shut late in the 2nd round. Whittaker wasn't quite close to finishing Romero, but he was battering Romero and easily getting the better of the exchanges.

However, the eye injury may have triggered some urgency for the patient but explosive Romero, and the tide turned in the 3rd round. Romero had fought his typical style through the first 2 rounds -- patiently waiting and blocking, sometimes barely moving at all, ready to abruptly burst into an explosive overhand punch or flying knee attack. Perhaps realizing that time was no longer on his side with his vision impeded, Yoel upped his output in Round 3 with great success, scoring a huge early knockdown. Whittaker survived the round and recovered well with some significant offense of his own, but all three judges ultimately scored round 3 for Romero (after unanimously scoring each of the first 2 rounds for Whittaker).

Romero slowed down in the 4th round, perhaps exhausted from trying to finish the resilient Australian champion. Whittaker was able to get back to his gameplan for much of the 4th round, until Romero was given an opportunity to recover and catch his breath after enduring a nasty accidental kick to the groin. Thereafter Romero was reenergized, and finished the round by renewing his blitzing offense and landing some devastating punches. Romero's late success was enough to earn him the 4th round on just one of the judge's scorecards.

The momentum was fully reversed by the 5th and final round, as Romero emptied out his gas tank to absolutely batter Whittaker for the duration of the round. It is a testament to Whittaker's toughness that he was never in a position for the referee to stop the fight in the 5h round, but he was not able to mount much in the way of offense. Romero's mix of powerful overhand hooks, and unforgiving top control wrestling had many fans (and the UFC commentary team) wondering whether Romero had earned a 10-8 score for the round, but none of the judges saw fit to award Romero the extra point, unanimously scoring him a 10-9 round.

It was clear that Whittaker won rounds 1 and 2, and that Romero won rounds 3 and 5. The two questions in terms of scoring were a) Who won round 4 - Whittaker for his superior volume, or Romero for his superior damage?; and b) did Romero deserve a 10-8 score for round 5? Unfortunately for Romero, the majority of the judges answered both questions in Whittaker's favor. Whittaker won by split decision, but certainly did not achieve the dominant statement win that he had hoped for.

Who "deserves" the next shot at the Middleweight title?

After the fight, Joe Rogan and the commentary team pushed the idea that Whittaker and Romero should fight for a third consecutive time. Though Whittaker is now 2-0 in their back-to-back bouts, a third match actually makes a lot of sense considering the somewhat unusual circumstances in the 185 pound division. For one, Whittaker's performance was impressive but not dominant. He escaped with the win and with his belt, but it doesn't feel like Whittaker quite accomplished his mission of proving himself undoubtedly superior to Yoel Romero. Simply put, another rematch would still feel like anyone's fight, not like a retread of a contest we have seen before.

Romero's detractors may point to his bad weight cut as evidence that he is undeserving of another title shot at Middleweight. That argument might be more compelling if an obvious contender was waiting in the wings, but a look at Middleweight's top 5 fighters practically leads back to Romero by process of elimination. With Romero ranked as the #1 contender, the #2 contender Luke Rockhold is 1-2 in his last 3 bouts and coming off of a brutal KO loss to Romero himself. #3 Chris Weidman may be a viable option, as he is coming off a submission win over Kelvin Gastelum and brings a relative shot of starpower to the division, but he is hardly an obvious challenger. Prior to choking out Gastelum, Weidman suffered a 3-fight losing streak, including yet another devastating KO at the hands of Yoel Romero. Since the Gastelum win, injuries have kept Weidman out of action for about one year. The aforementioned Kelvin Gastelum is ranked #4, and while he would be a fresh matchup for Whittaker and has not had his record sullied with a loss to Romero, it is somewhat hard to justify giving the shot to Gastelum over Weidman after Weidman soundly beat him. Finally, the #5 fighter Jacare Souza has suffered recent losses to Gastelum, Whittaker, and Romero.

After a razor-close fight in which Romero scored the biggest moments, and with no other obvious challenger at the heels of Robert Whittaker, it seems evident that Whittaker/Romero III is the matchup that makes the most sense.

"Deserve's Got Nothin' To Do With It"

As Clint Eastwood solemnly advised in the classic film "Unforgiven," the fight game, like life, is not about everyone getting what they deserve. After all, UFC 225 is a great reminder that the lens of "deserving" is very subjective. One fan might look at UFC 225 and think that Romero deserves nothing after missing weight and losing the decision; another might look at the same event and feel Romero deserves to properly be called the champion, or at least to get another crack at earning that honor. Moving forward, it is hard to say what will, or even what should happen in the UFC 225 title picture, but as long as the fighters continue to deliver at the high level that Robert Whittaker and Yoel Romero did last night, I will be happy to continue watching, and asking questions.