It certainly does on paper more than it does Tom. Don't get me wrong, Tom is a really good fighter and his time will come but lets be realistic here. Tom has not accomplished anywhere near what Stipe and Alex have. Alex has beaten 5 former champions in their primes and has captured gold in 2 different weight classes. Stipe has beaten JDS, Roy Nelson, Reem, Fabricio Werdum, Mark Hunt, Francis, and DC twice. That's a significantly better resume than Tom has so far who's only good wins are Volkov, Pav and an even older Arvloski than Stipe fought. Yes, Tom vs Jon is the more significant fight to many of us hardcore fans but the reality is the risk is not worth the reward for Jon.
You guys need to wake up and realize that Tom hasn't really done much at all in this sport yet and Pav isn't as good of a win as everyone is making him out to be. Wow he KO'ed Derrick, wow he KO'ed Tuivasa, both those guys get washed by anyone with a brain and a decent skill set. His best win is Blaydes and even then, it wasn't so much that he was way better than him it was more that Blaydes fight IQ failed him. Pav is not that good and an overrated win IMO. Don't get me wrong the dude is a big strong HW that hits really hard and has decent boxing but he loses to pretty much anyone that is smart enough to not get pulled into a fire fight with him.