Nevada on Notice

Photo Courtesy of UFC.com

I'm a budding MMA fan.

I can admit that. Easily. To see two people get into a caged environment and beat each other until one submits by tapping out, verbally or going unconscious just intrigues me. MMA organizations such as Bellator and UFC benefit greatly from whatever has been ailing the sport of boxing for years now. Be it a lack of talent, a lack of celebrity or even awful judgment, the sport of boxing is having the life sucked out of it and siphoned and placed into the veins of mixed martial arts.

Take for example the Timothy Bradley fight against Manny Pacquaio. We all know how that ended. Bradley defeated Pac-Man via split decision in Las Vegas. Fans of the sport disagreed with the ruling stating that there was no way Pacquaio lost this fight...but fans don't get official scorecards. Judges do. And the judges saw some fight that fans will tell you, to this day, they didn't see on pay-per-view.

Photo Courtesy of NYDailyNews.com

Fans swore off boxing and some even crossed over to mixed martial arts in disgust following the decision. And the sport, already booming with popularity because of all the things that boxing was missing, grew even more.

This weekend, mixed martial arts took a hit of their own as the UFC welterweight title bout was decided by...you guessed it, a split decision in favor of popular striker George St. Pierre over the up-and-coming Johny Hendricks. The title bout went five rounds and two judges scored the fight 48-47 in favor of GSP while the other scored it 48-47 in favor of the bearded fighter Hendricks.

Like the Bradley/Pac-Man fight, fans shared their displeasure with the decision.

I'm a GSP fan big time but Hendricks got robbed.
— Sal Masekela (@SalMasekela) November 17, 2013

Man, I love #GSP but he clearly had his lunch handed to him! Feel sorry for #Hendricks who was definitely the better fighter tonight!! #Oops
— Sheldon Souray (@SSouray) November 17, 2013

Absolutely disgusting. JH beat GSP's ass. It wasn't even close. Is this boxing now? Very sad. Johnny Hendricks got robbed! #UFC167
— Jay Mohr (@jaymohr37) November 17, 2013

Sure, this is just a small sample of fans who love to watch fights and felt that Hendricks got hosed. Fine. But when the commissioner of the sport comes out and say so, you've got a real problem.

Observe his interview with Fox Sports:

"Nevada is a very scary place. This is the worst commission on the planet.  I am afraid to bring fights to Las Vegas. I never thought I’d say that. This is the city I live in; this is the city I love. This is the worst commission on the planet.”

When the commissioner of the UFC says that, it's pretty damning. Again, I didn't see the fight...but I saw GSP's face...

Photo tweeted by @MikeChiappetta of Fox Sports

Does that look like the face of the champ? You could ask to see the other guys, but I can tell you from checking around...Hendricks didn't seem to have a scratch on him. Even GSP hinted at going away for a while...and he's the champ!!! So what does this mean? 

My guess is it means that somebody screwed up...royally. Now, this incident isn't going to do a lot of damage to the credibility of the sport, but it probably wouldn't hurt to have somebody take a look at the Nevada Athletic Commission...just to see what's really going on here. I know the fight wasn't judged by the same person from the Bradley fight, but it might as well have been if this was the outcome. 

Photo Courtesy of UFC.com

To be fair, I'd have to say that Hendricks doesn't find himself "robbed" of the title belt if he puts for the effort to win the fight completely. Reports have stated that Hendricks says he only gave 70 percent. But still the fact remains that GSP is your champion and this "vacation" he's going on isn't something that just popped up I'm guessing. After a beating like that, I'd definitely want time off too. 

So, let's see. UFC will probably have an interim welterweight champ until GSP returns and Hendricks will probably fight for that, too. But he certainly deserves a rematch from his effort tonight...and he should get it outside of the state of Nevada...just to be sure that he doesn't get the short end of the stick again. Judges in athletic commissions are supposed to be knowledgeable of the sport they preside over or judge. If the Nevada Athletic Commission can't provide that confort for sports like boxing or mixed martial arts. Who's going to be comfortable fighting there? Who's going to be comfortable with the idea of bringing there fights there. 

I think we all know the answer to that one...