We have a problem with our rules in the sport of MMA. I realize that’s not news to most fans, but as Dustin Poirier nurses a head wound and the loss of his win bonus as a result of a blatantly illegal strike at UFC 211 in Dallas, it seems like it bears repeating.

It also seems like it requires further examination, especially in the wake of referee Herb Dean’s explanation for why he didn’t disqualify Eddie Alvarez for illegally kneeing Poirier in the head.

First, the facts: In the second round of their fight, as Poirier (21-5 MMA, 13-4 UFC) put a hand and then a knee down, making him a clearly downed opponent under the version of the unified rules in use in Texas, Alvarez (28-5 MMA, 3-2 UFC) kneed him in the head – hard.

Actually, he kneed him a couple times, which maybe should have prompted an earlier intervention from Dean, but it was the last knee that really mattered. That one caught Poirier behind the ear and sent him crumpling to the mat. That’s when Dean stepped in, ruling the fight-ending maneuver an accidental foul, and calling it a no-contest.

The trouble lies with that determination, the one that differentiates accidental fouls from intentional ones. Here’s how Dean made that distinction in this case:

“There’s a lot going on in there, and that’s why (referees) give people a little bit of leeway with some of those rules,” Dean said. “I reserve ‘intentional’ for someone acting out of the rules and being a bad guy, and they need to be disqualified. I don’t think (Alvarez) was trying to be a bad person. I think he was trying to fight within the rules – it’s just that it’s difficult.”

The thing about that explanation is, I agree with almost every part of it – and I still think Dean made the wrong call.

Is there a lot going on in the cage? Yes there is. Was Alvarez trying to be “a bad person”? No, I don’t think so. Is it hard to follow every detail of the rules while you’re in a desperate, violent struggle with another human being who wants to hurt you and take your money? I’ll bet it is. Does that mean we should let you off the hook when you commit a fight-ending foul? I don’t think so.

Think about that word, “intentional.” I see what Dean is saying. Based on his head position when he threw the knee, Alvarez probably couldn’t see that Poirier was down. You could argue that he should have heard Dean’s warnings, but hey, with fans cheering and adrenaline flowing – plus maybe his ears still ringing from nearly being knocked out himself – maybe he didn’t.

But he had to at least know it was an iffy position to be throwing a knee at his opponent’s head. And that part definitely was intentional.

Alvarez meant to hit Poirier in the head with his knee, which is exactly what he did. If we shift the meaning of the word “intentional” in this sense so that it has a moral implication rather than simply a physical one, then we ask referees to, in addition to their other duties, peer into the hearts and minds of fighters as they make these split-second calls.

The trouble with doing it this way is that it makes it even more impossible for fighters to know what will happen after they have been fouled or committed a foul themselves.

Go back and watch Maximo Blanco kneeing Akira Corassani square in the face as Corassani was in the process of getting to his feet. Watch Erick Silva as he drills Carlo Prater in the back of the head with punches that ultimately ended the fight. Watch Jon Jones hitting Matt Hamill with a 12-to-6 elbow, or Anderson Silva upkicking a downed Yushin Okami.

Those all resulted in disqualification losses for the offending party. Who can look at those and say which ones happened as the result of someone being a bad person, and which ones were just instances of “a lot going on” in there?

Then there’s the other side, the Poirier side. He took a hard, illegal shot to the skull. He specifically put his knee down to avoid that shot, but Alvarez went ahead and hit him with it anyway. What do we tell him, after sending him home with an ache in his head and only his show money in his pocket? What, that it’s OK because Alvarez is a nice guy?

And Alvarez is a nice guy. You can see why Dean wouldn’t want to put that stain on his record. But that doesn’t change the fact that Alvarez broke the rules and should suffer the penalty.

You don’t have to be evil in order to commit a foul. We understand that it can happen, but we should also understand that it makes no sense to force the other guy to suffer for it.

Because if we fail to understand that, we’re always going to be locked in this same pattern of doubt and confusion. And who wants this to be a sport in which, even when we can all agree that a foul was committed, there’s absolutely no way to guess what will happen as a result of it?

For complete coverage of UFC 211, check out the UFC Events section of the site.