For Leon Edwards it was actually pretty simple: Beat Belal Muhammad, and punch a ticket to a jenyoowhine title shot against UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman. To punch that ticket — or to punch anything, really — he merely needed to make a fist.

Just make a damn fist.

Yet when Saturday night rolled around, those fingers of his, all eight of them bastards excluding the thumbs, were sticking up like smokestacks in a place of industry. Referee Herb Dean warned Edwards in an otherwise masterful first round to watch his fingers, but by the start of the second round Edwards was like a man fighting off a mean glare. He had his arm extended and his fingers out like he was battling an 18-wheeler with its brights on instead of a guy who simply wanted his name to be remembered.

And sure enough, one of those fingers found its way into the eye socket of Muhammad Belal’s skull early in the second. We all saw it. We all heard it. It was the wail of a man fighting off the urge to panic on a live broadcast, thinking he’d lost an eye. It was a nasty thing to happen, and not exactly the ending anybody wanted. Michael Bisping, who was on color commentary, made a sound of pure anguish. He knows what it’s about to lose an eye. Vitor Belfort claimed his back in 2013. The fight night itself came to a screaming end.

Then you know what happened? The repercussions started flowing in, one after another. Belal Muhammad, who had fought a literal middle-of-the-pack army to get this one opportunity against a contender, saw the curtain come down on him pretty hard. He wasn’t winning the fight when the poke occurred, and he was bleeding out the side of his head, so his case for a rematch was already flimsy by the time Joe Martinez announced it was a “no contest.” 

The words “unfair” and “accidental” were already feeling like small consolations, and really that was because of the set-up.

Muhammad was standing in on short notice for Khamzat Chimaev, who was the real heart of the narrative in the original matchmaking, and Muhammad was almost like a footnote. Had he won, he could have of course become the narrative. But then he didn’t. And he was losing the fight when the foul occurred. So asking for a rematch in a fight that was already a distraction from what was meant to be due to a foul would feel like continuing on with a detour in a division that needs through routes.

Then again, how can the UFC book Edwards into a title fight with Usman off of an eye-poke? Edwards was quick to point out that he was handling his business in the first round against Muhammad, which (he said) is all we needed to concern ourselves with in the end. The fight had a direction, and Edwards was inevitably headed for a victory. Skate to where the puck is going and all that, as Wayne Gretzky once said.

Which might be true. But that rendering feels a little speculative for title emphasis. Muhammad’s strength is that he’s kind of a dog in there. He dictates ugliness, makes it a grind, saps his opponents of will over the course of a fight. He hadn’t yet done that in this fight, but there was at least an equal chance that he’d have found his stride in there at some point — especially over the course of 25 minutes.

The thing is, you can’t know. You can’t!

What a royal mess.

Herb Dean warned Leon, too. He said, “watch your fingers” to Edwards and even demonstrated to him what was acceptable and what wasn’t, made that much more clear in the cathedral quiet of an empty room. But Edwards was fighting the spotlight beaming down on him on Saturday night. He had those fingers splayed out like he was about to stencil them on paper to make a Thanksgiving turkey. Thinking back on it, they seemed destined to get into somebody’s eye, didn’t they? They were like eight buddies standing around the craps table with mid-morning drinks and popped collars, moments away from heading out to the pool.

They were trouble.

Fortunately Muhammad’s vision began to come back later on that night, but the UFC welterweight division is still a blur. People were on Edwards’ side for a title shot heading into the fight, but coming out it’s not that easy. A rematch with Muhammad doesn’t make sense, either, not for a guy at the doorstep of a title shot. If not Edwards, then who? Colby Covington is out there for a rematch with Usman, so is Jorge Masvidal, but the UFC would be smart to turn those two celebrities on each other. Gilbert Burns just had a shot, so that leaves, what, “Wonderboy” Thompson?

Not ideal. Coming out of Saturday night there are more questions than answers, and it might be a little while before things come back into focus.