Activity is worth something.
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Activity is the main reason he deserves it (along with style).
You can only beat the fighters they give you, so opponent quality is out of your control. Plus the UFC is only obligated to "offer" you so many fights a year and they might offer you opponents that make no sense so that when you say no they can wait 6 months to offer you someone else. They have an innate ability to manipulate fighters careers by whom they offer and when, so it's kind of how much they like you and how much you are wiling to eat shit/play ball.
Also some of those wins by Lopes lack the credibility of high-level wins:
-submitting Gavin Tucker (hasn't fought since then, was 36 at the time at FW, is basically retired)
-KO'd Sabitini who had just been KO'd a year before by a declining Damon Jackson, isn't ranked and primarily a grappler
-Ige was a 29-28 decision against a guy with less than 24 hours notice (whom Evloev absolutely mauled 30-27 when they were both full camp)
The Yusuff and Ortega wins are both very good, but Yusuff wasn't even top 10 and Ortega has declined heavily and taken insane amounts of damage prior to his fight with Lopes (planning to move up to LW before he pulled out of the first fight, never a good sign of an elite fighter that is supposed to be a contender).
I get that it's all through a revisionist lens though, and credit should be given to Lopes for having such an aggressive-exciting style and being willing to take whatever fights possible to work his way up the ladder as fast as possible.
Evloev isn't getting the shot because he's a decision machine with a grappling-heavy style fighting out of a region they already have plenty of champions/contenders in. I mean people can shit on Ank all they want, but he does have like a 40% KO/TKO rate, so even if those guys he finished aren't elite you can't say he's seemingly incapable of it like you an with Evloev.
If Lopes wins it sets-up an intriguing 5-round rematch with Evloev, so I'm fine with the match-making - is Volk vs. Evloev really a more compelling fight to make? I don't think so.