Stating the obvious why the UFC always gives Penn shots at the title and Fitch has to blow Dana practically to get one. Fitch plays it safe. Makes very little mistakes, but also has very few shining moments and spectacular highlights. Penn doesn't.
None of this has anything to do with giving Penn credit for ****ing up and getting taken down and totally owned, costing himself a win. Your feeling that Penn was more likely to do something "exciting" and hence pretending like obviously won the second and should be given credit for getting blown out in the third is nonsense. Regardless of how you FEEL when you're watching them doesn't change the fact that head to head it was very close and Fitch did no worse than a draw, and perhaps should have won.