UFC 139 Results: Hendo vs. Shogun Should Have Been a Draw

UFC 139 is in the books, and if you missed it, you missed out on three important lessons.

First lesson: the UFC, like them or not, does know how to put on great fights, especially "Fight of The Year" candidates.

That we got two surefire "Fight of The Year" contenders in last weekend's Clay Guida-Ben Henderson tussle and last night's Dan Henderson-Shogun Rua bout—perhaps even three with the co-main event of last night’s main card featuring Wanderlei Silva and Cung Le—all in the span of two weeks only supports the opinion that the UFC does know how to give the fans what they want, even if some of us couldn't really give a damn about the men that pull the strings behind the scenes.

Second lesson: the decision to go with five rounds instead of three for the main event, even without a title on the line, did prove to be a good idea in the long run.

Of course, we'd be wise to not get too comfortable with seeing this level of action on every night of fights, because not every five-rounder will be as awesome as Hendo-Shogun was tonight, and some of them might downright suck even if they go five rounds, but fights like the one we all saw or should've seen tonight deliver everything we expect and often predict out of fights and then some, producing a battle of warrior spirits that most fight fans recognize as such a classic to the point where scoring goes out the window.

To put it in simple terms, that’s what fight fans witnessed last night, whether they realized it or not.

That leads us to the third lesson that we, the people that watched UFC 139, should have learned, knowing all of the aforementioned before the fifth round of Shogun-Hendo ended—once again remembering that no amount of tweets or words were able to convey how good the main event was, aside from those who labeled it in their own words as “the greatest MMA fight I”ve ever seen in my life”—which was that the main event of UFC 139 should have been a draw.

The fight was that close, whether you believe it or not—but it was true 47-47 material.

Both men got hurt, took serious damage and looked gassed before they even saw the championship rounds, but they never let up.

Hendo landed his right hand with some ground-and-pound and a few submission attempts, and Shogun landed some big shots of his own with some ground-and-pound as well as a few submission attempts.

However, one key thing to recall is that, while Hendo did better in three rounds than Shogun did in two, Hendo did not take any of whichever three rounds he won in a fashion as dominant as the fashion in which Shogun won the fifth round.

If you’re asking me, Hendo won the first three rounds 30-27, but Shogun could have easily taken the fourth round on Henderson, despite it being so close, just as some of the others were.

Actually, I believe I gave Shogun the fourth round myself just by virtue of what he did on the ground, compared to what Hendo tried to do, and this was, again, a high octane affair that could have gone either way for sure.

However, should it really have gone 48-47 in favor for Henderson as it did, or did the judges mess this call up by doing what they did at UFC 121 and favoring the former Strikeforce Champion simply to boost his appeal and give him a sound welcome back into the UFC?

That fifth round says “10-8 Shogun,” and if you gave Shogun the fourth round as a 10-9 just as I saw it, you know that while Henderson definitely took three rounds, he technically should have been given a draw.

Would it have hurt Henderson or Rua if there was not a decisive winner?

Perhaps, but at least it would have been an honest decision that nobody would have complained about because of how neck-and-neck the fight was.

Greatest MMA fight of all time, quite possibly this was, but a clear 48-47 for Hendo?

That’s pushing it a little bit, given the circumstances.

Be sure to stay tuned to Bleacher Report for all things UFC 139. B/R is your home for complete coverage of the November 19 fight card , from pre-fight predictions to in-fight coverage, results and post-fight analysis.