Jacare, Gastelum, Whittaker, Romero, and Rockhold were all ahead of him and his 7-1 was not that impressive. He didn't have one top 5 win. Lets break it down...
Chris Weidman- Ranked
#6 and was riding a two fight losing streak and was a bullshit TKO. That fight should have been restarted and Chris was not decisively beat.
Uriah Hall- Ranked number
12 and was coming of back to back losses
Vitor Belfort- Ranked
#9 an old TRT-less post USADA vitor isn't much to brag about
Thiago Santos- was ranked
24 in the world at that time and went on to lose to Eric Spicely (who?) in his next bout. Can't believe this guy is going to be fighting Jones.
Thales Leites- was ranked
11 and was coming of a loss to Micheal Bisping
Uriah Hall- A fight he lost and was ranked at number
32
Costas Philippou- was ranked
13 and coming of a 2 fight losing streak
Dan Henderson- who was unranked (coming back from a LHW stint) was old and without TRT and was 1-4 in his last 5 fights