Does Yushin deserve a shot?

Eric and I went back and forth a little over this at MMARatings, but for some reason the comment button stopped working for me there. Eric seems to put a lot of importance on Yushin "deserving" a shot. I think he's the most deserving. I'm not sure those are different criteria.
Yushin Okami is widely perceived as a boring fighter. He's got 10 decision wins and 12 stoppages, as well as one win via DQ, notably over Anderson Silva. The two fighters Eric asked me about, presumably as being more deserving than Yushin, are Michael Bisping and Demian Maia. Also, wins over Mike Swick and Jason MacDonald don't mean much. I'd presume that goes for all three fighters.
Now Bisping has less than a handful of fights at 185lbs. He beat Chris Leben, Jason Day, and Charles McCarthy at 185. He's basically fought a long string of gatekeepers in my estimation since rising out of the regional MMA circuit. I've recently upgraded my estimation of Bisping, but in my book he's still a level below Yushin. If you look at his recent record it's good, 7-1 in the UFC if you count the horrific decision win over Matt Hamill and the nearly as horrific loss to Rashad Evans. As I was told that Yushin would have to beat someone of a Rich Franklin or Dan Henderson level, and neither of them is a middleweight anymore, it's a wonder who he's supposed to fight. I pointed out that he could fight Marquardt for a #1 contender spot, which Thales Leites didn't have to get through. Anyhow, it's irrelevant, as the Leites fight is merely a rumor at the moment.
Maia has very little record to base any estimation on. He's 4-0 in the UFC with wins over Nate Quarry, Ed Herman, and Ryan Jensen, as long as Jason MacDonald doesn't seem to count, so 3 and 0, I guess.
Yushin Okami is 7-1 with a decision loss to Rich Franklin in the ME at 72. He's beaten everyone in front of him other than Ace, which is something a lot of guys can say.
Leites, by the way, is 6-1 in the UFC with a loss in his debut to Martin Kampmann, and wins over Drew McFedries, Pete Sell, Floyd Sword, and an absolute fucking abortion of a penalty decision "win" over Nate Marquardt. Yes, the rules are the rules blah blah blah it still sucked. But a win is a win, that's why Yushin has a win over who?
While looking closer at Leites for this entry, I lost some of my doubt about him. Outside of the pool of guys who already had a shot at the Spider (Dan Henderson and Nate the Great are two guys I'd like to see get rematches), Leites and Yushin are the two most deserving. As a fan I'd say Yushin, but honestly I can't say I'd be pissed for Leites. This isn't boxing, where you have champs who only take title shots against the biggest money draw. Otherwise Gabe Gonzaga would never have been in there with Randy. This is MMA, where we should get to see the best fighters fight. If that's the case, then we get Yushin-Silva, or Leites-Silva, with the guy on the out getting a #1 contender fight. So how about, if the Leites-Silva fight actually happens, the Yushin fights Bisping for a contender's spot? Or vice versa. Seems fair. Worry about Maia next summer.

Here's the records, by the way:

Okami

Win Dean Lister
Win Evan Tanner
Win Jason MacDonald
Loss Rich Franklin
Win Mike Swick
Win Rory Singer
Win Kalib Starnes
Win Alan Belcher
Win Izuru Takeuchi
Win Pang Ji Won
Loss Jake Shields
Win Anderson Silva
Win Myun Joo Lee
Win Damien Riccio
Win Nick Thompson
Win Brian Foster
Win Eiji Ishikawa
Loss Falaniko Vitale
Win Ryuta Sakurai
Win Kousei Kubota
Loss Amar Suloev
Win Kazuhiro Hanada
Win Hidehiko Hasegawa
Win Hikaru Sato
Win Sen Nakadai
Win Steve White
Win Kyosuke Sasaki

Maia

Win Nate Quarry
Win Jason MacDonald
Win Ed Herman
Win Ryan Jensen
Win Ryan Stout
Win Fabio Nascimento
Win Gustavo Machado
Win Vitelmo Kubis Bandeira
Win Lukas Chlewicki

Bisping

Win Chris Leben
Win Jason Day
Win Charles McCarthy
Loss Rashad Evans
Win Matt Hamill
Win Elvis Sinosic
Win Eric Schafer
Win Josh Haynes
Win Ross Pointon
Win Jakob Lovstad
Win Miika Mehmet
Win Alex Cook
Win Dave Radford
Win Mark Epstein
Win Andy Bridges
Win Mark Epstein
Win John Weir
Win Steve Mathews

Thales Leites

Win Drew McFedries
Win Nate Marquardt
Win Ryan Jensen
Win Floyd Sword
Win Pete Sell
Loss Martin Kampmann
Win Jose Landi-Jons
Win Osami Shibuya
Win Jason Guida
Win Ronald Jhun
Win Gustavo Machado
Win Adam Roland
Win Lucio Linhares
Win Flavio Luiz Moura
Win Felipe Arinelli