I just watched the whole fight twice and that first round 4 times in slow mo.

Let me state this, the first time i saw the fight i thought hendricks won clearly, just because when you look at it on the face of it Hendricks won that fight as a whole Then after a couple minutes i sat down calmed down and analyzed it.

I have come up with two answers. the first is that rounds 2-5 were judged completely correctly. with hendricks clearly winning 2 and 4 and GSP winning 3 and 5

Second, the first was absurdly close.

GSP actually out landed him, what i counted as 16-15. I believe fight metric had it 19-18. I guess they count un clean shots more than me. The other key factor was GSP had a clean takedown with about 40 seconds of top control. While hendricks had a trip takedown that GSP bounced back up on. GSP also controlled the ring in the first, and initiated 4 out of 5 clinches. The big factor was Hendricks also had about 4 elbows when gsp was going for a takedown. So IMO opinion GSP out-landed him but Hendricks had the heavier shots in he round. I personally think a draw would have been fair, based on the scoring system. However what is clear is that anyone saying this is a robbery is either watching off emotion without taking time to watch again *cough Dana cough* It was very close and the judges had a tough decision.

it really could have gone either way based on the judges scoring of 
- Octogon control, significant strikes landed and Grappling superiority. 
- What isnt is actually damage, which is not a factor in the fights, which is half fair as GSP is always gonna cut way easier due to having way more scar tissue.

So while most feel Hendricks won (i dont completely disagree) it was not a robbery. If anything it is a fault in the rules

More importantly though is that i think people should respect GSP decisions to retire, he has been the champ longer than anybody and frankly i think he is sick of MMA. He has been fighting for 16 years since he was 17, and really since he was a kid. Feel free to respond respectfully.