Losses are part of the fight game, but Pedro Munhoz is having a tough time digesting the way in which his most recent one came about.

Munhoz (15-3 MMA, 5-3 UFC) met John Dodson (20-9 MMA, 9-4 UFC) in an FS1-televised preliminary card bantamweight bout at this past Saturday’s UFC 222. He lost via split decision: One judge saw it 29-28 Munhoz’s way, while Dodson took home 29-28 and 30-27 scores.

Of course losing – and having a four-fight winning streak snapped in the process – wouldn’t have been fun regardless. But the fact that Munhoz was “99 percent” sure his hand was going to be the one raised as the scorecards were read made it that much harder.

“For sure, it’s a bitter pill to swallow,” Munhoz told MMAjunkie, after an initial story by Brazil’s Combate.com. “It’s one thing when you get knocked down, or submitted, or when your opponent is technically superior that night. That happens. But feeling wronged like this? It’s tough. It’s really hard to digest.”

Munhoz’s frustration with the result stems from the basic conviction that he was the one chasing the fight, while Dodson avoided it. He advanced, while Dodson “ran.” And while he knows the two threw a similar amount of strikes (the total was 184 for Dodson and 172 for Munhoz, according to Fightmetric.com), Munhoz believes there’s a difference in the way that these strikes were ultimately delivered.

“The difference is that I was always pursuing the fight,” Munhoz said. “The difference is that I kicked him in the face, I kicked him in the body, in the leg. I landed a clean kick to his face. I moved forward, I controlled the cage. And I got a takedown late in the third round.”

Whatever Munhoz did wasn’t enough to convince two of the octagon-side judges – particularly Adalaide Byrd, who saw the close fight as a clean sweep for Dodson.

Of course, the MMA community is really no stranger to Byrd, who’s been known to make some controversial calls in the past. Munhoz, however, wasn’t even aware of who she was. What he was aware of was the scorecard – which he described as simply “absurd.”

“What fight was she watching?” Munhoz said. “Did she watch the fight that came before and was drunk for mine? Where, in her head – is she experienced? Does she know what fighting is? Does she come from boxing? Does she know MMA? Are they assessing aggression, grappling, kicks, punches, fight control? Or is she a fan of Floyd Mayweather, who does that Tom & Jerry, cat and mouse game of running from the opponent?”

Dodson didn’t exactly surprise many people by showing up with his typically fast, elusive style. It certainly didn’t surprise Munhoz, who’d prepared for exactly what he got – and countered with his own aggressive, forward-moving game. What threw him wasn’t at all what happened in the cage, but how it was perceived by the judges.

“It’s very frustrating,” Munhoz said. “That’s the word, exactly: it’s very frustrating. One thing that was clear to me was that I gave my all. I left my last breath and my last sweat drop in the cage. I did everything to show that I wanted to win. I wanted the knockout or the submission, but he was running too much, he’s too fast.

“I did everything to show I wanted the fight more. How? By attacking at all times. If that wasn’t enough to show I shouldn’t have won, what should have I done? Should I have run like him? Then there wouldn’t have been a fight. There’d be two of us running.”

Ultimately, though, Munhoz’s problem isn’t Dodson. Despite the weigh-in drama that led their fight to be rescheduled, Munhoz says there’s no personal beef there. And, like or not, Munhoz won’t be the one to say how Dodson should go about his fighting style.

The issue for him here is the inconsistency: Considering he’d seen similar fights get different outcomes before, how’s one supposed to know what to do in order to win in the eye of the judges?

“It was the same thing with John Lineker,” Munhoz said. “Dodson ran the entire fight, John Lineker attacked. And I threw many more blows than Lineker. Lineker won. With Marlon Moraes, too. Marlon got knocked down, attacked him more, won the fight.

“My fight was the same. I pursued the fight all times, I moved forward at all times and landed more blows than both of them. But the result was the opposite. So there really isn’t a standard.”

This was the second time Munhoz landed on the sour end of a split decision. The first was in 2015, when he lost to contender Jimmie Rivera at UFC Fight Night 77 in Sao Paulo. Munhoz would go on to win his next four octagon outings – three of them resulting in “Performance of the Night” submissions.

Clearly, going to the scorecards has never been Munhoz’s preference. But his belief in finishing fights has certainly been reassured by the situation (via Instagram).

Now, in order to digest a particularly bitter loss, Munhoz looks to his family and daughter for comfort. With a swollen foot to tend to, a result of the kicks he threw as part of the gameplan to slow Dodson down, the Brazilian bantamweight’s idea now is to rest up for a week to 10 days before resuming training.

Then, Munhoz will figure out his next steps. Not one to hand-pick fights or issue call-outs, Munhoz doesn’t know what – or who – may lie ahead. But he is optimistic that, at least, the setback wasn’t too harmful when it comes to his standings in the division.

“The judges make the win official, but the UFC watches it and they know which style pleases them,” Munhoz said. “There are many fighters who are in the UFC to this day thanks to the way they fight. I think I’m one of them.

“Even coming off a loss, it’s a loss in which I was always coming forward. I’m always looking for the knockout or the submission. This is something that’s eye-pleasing for them. So I think a win now might land me in the top-5.”

For complete coverage of UFC 222, check out the UFC Events section of the site.