Despite the fact that those of us who stayed up until 6am to watch Conor McGregor vs Nate Diaz II were treated to a fight of the year contender that resulted in both men shaking hands and agreeing to do it all again down the line after five closely fought rounds, there are, inevitably, many who have decided that the entire thing was rigged.
Perhaps it is those who are unfamiliar with the sport and simply cannot accept that there are no scripts or storylines at play, but a look through social media the morning after the night before would have you genuinely baffled.
This was a close fight. There is no denying that this was a genuine contest from start to finish, and while it is entirely understandable that some will feel that Diaz won the fight, to suggest that he was conned or that the fight had a pre-determined outcome is so far wide of the mark that it needs to be addressed.
Here are three surprisingly common conspiracy theories doing the rounds that really need to stop.
Nate Diaz "took it easy" to guarantee a third fight.
First up, a blatant admission that whoever is claiming this has absolutely no clue what they are on about. There is no world where a Diaz brother gives anything less than 100% in a fight.
The idea here is that if Nate Diaz had won the fight via decision, there would be no way to sell the third fight and both Conor, Nate, and the UFC would be missing out on a lot of money.
This is ignoring the fact that Diaz tried to aggressively finish the fight on a number of occasions, and won the fifth round of a close contest, which would have been a very bad idea if he wanted to lose.
Dana White ensured that any decision would go to McGregor.
The next theory that needs to be squashed implicates Dana, who can now pick and choose who wins, apparently.
The idea behind this one is that White is so heavily invested in McGregor's success that he would not allow a second consecutive defeat to happen, and that the judges were instructed to give any decision to the Irishman.
This is actually still being said, despite seeing all three judges scorecards which appear perfectly valid, as well as the scoring provided by a list of the most well respected journalists in the sport, only one of which gave the fight to Diaz. Again, it is acceptable to believe that Diaz won, it is not acceptable to believe that he was robbed.
There were even suggestions that the scorecards had the same handwriting for all three judges, despite the fact that the scorecards seen were filled in by one person after collecting the three judges scorecards.
Nate's scar tissue, and therefor bloody face, influenced the judges.
Yes, sadly, there are some who are arguing that Nate Diaz's having his face covered in blood is what influenced the judges to give it to McGregor... Lets have a look at Nate's face:
Here is Nate Diaz's face post fight #UFC202 pic.twitter.com/N7U9akAkTF
— #Dizz © (@TalkMMA) August 21, 2016
McGregor landed enough clean shots to the face of his opponent to do significant damage, to suggest that a different fighter would have been less visually damaged is wildly off the mark. Nate stood through what very, VERY, few other fighters could have.
This is ignoring the three knockdowns McGregor scored, the dominant first round and clear winning of round four which came after most thought he was "gassed", and suggesting that the shots Conor repeatedly landed on Nate's face only did damage because of the scar tissue in the area can't be taken seriously.
It was a great fight, a close fight, with a decision that does indeed nicely tee up a third fight...
But a fix, it most certainly was not.
