There are a multitude of things that were factors in the fight. I thought BJ was more effective with his jab and decisively lost only 1 round ( the 5th). I actually had it 48-48 with a 10-10 4th round but since It was a very close one, but I did fully expect BJ to pull the win from the judges.
Reports were BJ has a sinus infection and was on antibiotics at the time.
The real issue here is that, because they were in Abu Dhabi, there was no sanctioning body, so the UFC brough their own judges and officials that they selected from various areas.
Doug Crosby, from New Jersey, scored the bout 50-45, which is all 5 rounds to Frank Edgar. We all know that is about as heinous a decision as any even if you thought Frankie won the fight.
Post fight, he went on the UG and bashed everyone who criticized his score card. Worst of all this isn't the first time he's been a judge and turned in a horrible scorecard.
As for the money issue, the UFC is fine, each PPV rakes in millions of dollars and the whole reason they ran this show in Abu Dhabi is because Zuffa just sold 10% of their company to Flash Entertainment, a company based in Abu Dhabi. The valuation of Zuffa was likely over $1 billion. so 10% is around $100M dollars.
