It was fixed only in the way that it was set up. Eddie didn’t belong fighting RDA for the belt. The UFC just wanted to be sure to have a favorable size and style match up for Conor.
I can understand that people feel Eddie didn't deserve the title shot based on some underwhelming performances prior to the fight.
But if you look at the rankings at the time (not just the biased official ones, I'm talking sherdog rankings as well) Eddie's title shot made sense.
Eddie had for a long time been ranked as a top 5 LW by many - just an example, here are the Sherdog LW rankings of May 2014:
1. Pettis 2. Benson 3. Melendez 4. Alvarez 5. Josh Thomson
Eddie's UFC debut loss to Cerrone made his stock drop a lot, but in hindsight it didn't seem so bad because Cerrone was on a big win streak.
Eddie then beat Melendez and Pettis; both guys were still very highly ranked at the time.
Even if Eddie's performances were not great - we have to consider what the division looked like; the rankings had opened up with big names like Bendo falling down the rankings.
After Cerrone got his title shot, it made sense that Alvarez was next in line.
UFC LW rankings january 2016:
Champ: RDA 1. Pettis 2.Khabib 3. Cerrone 4. Alvarez
I mean, sure, guys like Khabib and Tony were hot new contenders and you could argue they should've got the title shot before Eddie.
But Eddie was just more established, he had already fought everyone in the top 5 except RDA - so it made sense to give him the title shot and let the up and comers be next.
