The new year opened with an old familiar themen: controversial decision in a championship fight.





Robbie Lawler (27-10, 1 no contest) retained his UFC welterweight title via split decision on scores of 47-48, 48-47 and 48-47 over Carlos Condit (30-9) in a decision where statistics told a very different story. In a fight that was almost all standing, Condit had a 176-92 edge in significant strikes, and outlanded Lawler in all five rounds.





Still, you can for the most part throw those numbers out because all three judges, and the vast majority of those in the media, were in agreement that Lawler won rounds two and five, while Condit won one and four. To determine the winner, that throws everything out except round three.





Condit out-landed Lawler 17-10 and was the aggressor most of the round. But Lawler landed the harder blows early in the round. Upon first viewing, I had Condit winning solidly, but repeated viewings showed it was a close round that came down to volume vs. force, and briefly rocking someone vs. control of most of the round.





While most favored Condit, the round was close enough that it could have gone either way. The media scores were 15-3 in favor of Condit with two others having the fight as a draw. UFC President Dana White concurred, thinking Condit won three rounds and the fight, but didn't go off on the judges as he had in the past when he disagreed with the decision in major fights.





The three men whose votes actually counted saw Derek Cleary and Chris Lee go for Lawler, while Tony Weeks had it for Condit.





Although the year is only a few days old, Lawler put himself in the running for winning major Fight of the Year awards for the third straight year, coming off his first fight with Johny Hendricks in 2014 and his fight with Rory MacDonald last year that each garnered a number of award mentions. Round five, with both giving all they had until they, right next to each other, stood exhausted against the cage after time ran out, was one of the great rounds in UFC history.





What comes next in the welterweight division is tricky. Realistically, Condit hadn't earned the title shot beforehand. He had lost three of his previous five fights, and was ranked as the No. 4 contender, behind MacDonald, Tyron Woodley and Hendricks.





His getting the shot only makes sense based on the idea that styles make fights. Lawler vs. Condit, on paper, figured to be almost exactly what it turned out to be. Whether it was the right fight for rankings, it was clearly the right fight for giving fans a show, and stylistically, Condit did, as evidenced by his performance, was a very real threat to the championship, and today, one can strongly argue, should be the rightful champion.





The reality is great fights are not nearly as marketable as a lot of people think they would be. If having great fights was a key in drawing, nobody in the UFC would be a bigger star than Lawler. And of all the opponents in the division, Condit matched up the best with him if you were just looking for pure excitement.





Neither would be expected to lay back standing and wait to counter, nor would either be expected to attempt to take the fight down. Both men can take punches like nobody's business. Between the two of them, they've had 77 fights and only one loss via stoppage from strikes, and that was 11 years ago when Lawler lost to Nick Diaz. Lawler has power in his punches and kicks, while Condit is taller, has the reach edge, and has more variety in his strikes, with a steady assortment of punches, kicks, knees and elbows. Neither tires easily, and both are tailor-made for five-round fights .





Yet, the event failed to sell out the MGM Grand Garden Arena, drawing an announced 10,300 fans. Most reports indicated slow bar traffic. Nobody was expecting big pay-per-view numbers, and it probably wasn't helped coming off two straight monster shows.





Still, coming off this fight, Condit would likely do better than Woodley, the logical next contender, when it comes to who the public would want to see and pay to see get a shot at the title. And right now, they are the two logical choices.





MacDonald hasn't fought since his loss to Lawler in July. Hendricks, who really had the best claim of all as a former champion, forfeited his spot in line when he failed to make weight against Woodley. While Woodley holds a win over Condit, when Condit blew out his knee in the second round of a 2014 fight, he may not match up as well as Condit as an opponent for Lawler, particularly in a long fight.





But the fact most, except the ones who count, feel Condit should be champion today, would be justification for a rematch even if this wasn't a fight of the year candidate. Throwing in that anyone who saw this one would probably love to see it again, and hopefully with a more satisfying end result, should also put Condit getting a rematch ahead of Woodley.





However, Condit was talking retirement after the fight. That's something of a surprise given he's only 31, has never been knocked out, and is coming off what was arguably the best all-around performance of his career. Woodley made it clear he badly wants the shot. If Condit doesn't do the same, he may get passed over.





When you have five close decisions, four split decisions, in one night, the judging is going to be a major story. What's notable is that of the four splits, and a fifth close call that went unanimous, the media scores were solidly in favor of the person the judges felt lost four of the five times.





In Michinori Tanaka's win over Joe Soto, the media had it 11-6 with one draw in favor of Soto. This decision was all about the first round. All three judges had round two for Tanaka and three for Soto. In round one, the key point in the round was when Tanaka took Soto down, but Soto was busier on the bottom, working for a gogoplata and landing elbows.





Only Adelaide Byrd gave the round to Soto, with Weeks and Lee going the other way.





Justine Kish took a unanimous decision over Nina Ansaroff, including judges Junichiro Kamijo and Glenn Trowbridge going 30-27. But 12 of 17 reporters picked Ansaroff as the winner.





The Alex Morono win over Kyle Noke was notable because judge Patricia Morse Jarman gave it 30-27 for Noke, while Sal D'Amato and Lee gave it 29-28 for Morono. D'Amato and Lee both gave Morono the second and third rounds. Yet, 16 of 17 reporters gave the fight to Noke.





In Albert Tumenov's win over Lorenz Larkin, it came down to round one, where Byrd went with Larkin while Kamijo and Cleary had it for Tumenov. Larkin outlanded Tumenov 18-17 in that round, but Tumenov's shots to the body were more powerful than Larkin's offense of low kicks. Reporters had it 13-5 for Tumenov with one draw.





In most cases, when you have a close fight, you have to accept decisions can go either way. Still, I thought Noke was a solid winner. The first round decision in Tanaka vs. Soto was based on a takedown and not doing damage, or getting in offense from the top while the guy on bottom was the one threatening the submission, can be a fundamental problem with judging. Ironically, Soto himself accepted it well, going with the doctrine that if you're on your back, you're probably going to lose the round.





Not including Lawler, covered above, let's look at how Fortunes Changed for Five at UFC 195.





CARLOS CONDIT - The first thing Condit will have to do is decide if he's going to fight again, and the sooner the better. If he's going to, he should push that he believes he won the fight. If he doesn't give UFC an affirmative answer relatively soon, they'll be booking Lawler with somebody else, most likely Woodley, and once that fight is made, the judging controversy will no longer be nearly as much of a focal point in people's minds.





If Condit does decide to return, and doesn't get the title shot, the fighter that makes the most sense as a contenders fight is Demian Maia (22-6). But that's a tough style match-up because Condit has shown he can lose decisions to people who can take him down. Maia is very good with takedowns, and even better at control once he gets an opponent down.





If the idea is to get Condit ready for another title shot, better opponents would be Matt Brown (20-13) or Benson Henderson (23-5). A Brown fight would figure to be exciting, while Henderson, if he stays with UFC, has the bigger name from being a former lightweight champion.





STIPE MIOCIC - After scoring a 54-second win over Andrei Arlovski, Miocic (14-2) immediately went in front of Dana White and was loudly yelling for a title shot.





Strategically, the smartest thing he could have done was to hammer that point right after his highest profile career win.





It comes down to Miocic or Alistair Overeem (40-14, 1 no contest) as to who gets the next shot at the winner of the Feb. 6 fight in Las Vegas with champion Fabricio Werdum vs. Cain Velasquez. Overeem is the bigger name fighter, and is coming off finishing the previous other top contender, Junior Dos Santos. That's the same dos Santos that Miocic beat.





The negative on Overeem is he lost three out of five, all by knockout, during 2013 and 2014. Miocic has won five of six, with dos Santos in a close decision being the only loss. Overeem also has a win over Werdum.





White at least gave the indication Miocic is next in line. If that somehow falls though, what makes the most sense next would be for him to face the winner of the Jan. 30 FOX fight with Ben Rothwell (35-9) vs. Josh Barnett (34-7).





ANDREI ARLOVSKI - The quick loss was a bad one for the former champion, who came one step away from a comeback story as a guy nearly everyone wrote off years ago. What's in his favor is heavyweight is a weak division and people can rebound from losses and get back into the mix rather quickly. Arlovski (25-11, 1 no contest) would make for a good opponent for dos Santos (17-4). But it's a fight that right now neither could afford to lose.





ALBERT TUMENOV - Tumenov's fifth win in a row should be good enough to get him a ranked opponent next. Kelvin Gastelum (11-2), coming off a loss to Neil Magny on Nov. 21 would be a good pick. Tumenov (17-2), while dangerous and not yet having a big name, would be a strong win for Gastelum to start a comeback. At 24, they are two of the best younger fighters in the division. An even more explosive fight could be with Warlley Alves (10-0). But Gastelum is the one with a ranking, and the bigger name, so he'd be better for Tumenov's upward mobility.





DUSTIN POIRIER - Poirier (19-4) was ranked No. 12 at lightweight and scored his most impressive win in the division over Joe Duffy. Poirier was able to taken Duffy down and beat him up on the ground for three rounds. Good next opponents would be Beneil Dariush (12-1), Evan Dunham (17-6) or Michael Chiesa (13-2), because all three would figure to test him on the ground more than Duffy did.