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Downes: I’ll cover Askren in a minute, but I want to cover one more thing with regard to Smith. You say he acted out of a sense of honor and you respect that. The sense of honor is the same reason he went out for the fifth round when he had no answer for Jones. It’s the reason fighters want to go out on their “shields.” You’ve called that idea stupid for years, yet now it’s something to be praised?

As for Askren, it was pretty much the perfect UFC debut for him. His detractors can point to Lawler busting him up and say that “Funky” has been fighting bums for years. His fans can show how he weathered the storm and fought back. Best of all, Askren wins controversially and he can continue his smarmy offensive.

Being able to say, “I’m not the referee, I did my job,” is totally in character. If he found a way to mention crypto-currency, he might’ve hit peak Askren.

Does he owe Lawler a rematch? Probably, but I don’t see it happening. Askren has a limited window and he doesn’t want to waste his time doing the same fight over again. Now that his friend Tyron Woodley is no longer the welterweight champion, his angle for a championship fight becomes more clear. Just imagine White’s joy when he has to promote a Colby Covington vs. Ben Askren title fight.

Perhaps you would have like to seen Askren show more contrition and diminish his win, but that wasn’t going to happen. What does he have to gain from it? Fans who hate him aren’t going to change their minds because he admits that Lawler got screwed. Plus it would hurt his chances to get the winner of Darren Till vs. Jorge Masvidal – the fight he really wants.

Crime may not pay, but letting the ref give you a win sure does. Askren learned that lesson, maybe Smith should have, too.

Fowlkes: I’m sure you’re right. I’m sure if Smith were sitting around his hotel room today with a DQ win over Jones, he’d be looking in the mirror and saying to himself: “You sly dog, Anthony. Here you are on top of the world with no regrets whatsoever!”

Or maybe he’d be realizing that all the good will he’d built up with fans as the gentleman competitor in the light heavyweight division had vanished overnight, and with a Jones rematch still to look forward to.

But you actually are right about Askren’s attitude working in part because of our existing attitudes about him. He’s not quite a Covington-level villain, but he is something of a gleeful bad guy here to ruin your party. For him to get a win that feels not entirely earned only feeds that fire. For Smith, it would have been something else entirely.

But seriously, we’re really going to act like Smith should have stayed on his stool when the fifth round started? I know he was getting beaten up. I agree he couldn’t seem to do much of anything to Jones. But it wasn’t like he was being so thoroughly abused that it was an unconscionable risk to his health to walk out there for five more minutes and hope for some luck.

This guy wanted to win the light heavyweight title. He didn’t want to trick his way into it or quit when it got a little rough. I’d think we could all respect that. I’d also think that, realistically, that respect in defeat was the best outcome he could hope for against a fighter of Jones’ caliber.

For complete coverage of UFC 235, check out the UFC Events section of the site.

Ben Fowlkes is MMAjunkie and USA TODAY’s MMA columnist. Danny Downes, a retired UFC and WEC fighter, is an MMAjunkie contributor who has also written for UFC.com and UFC 360. Follow them on twitter at @benfowlkesMMA and @dannyboydownes.