Having settled a tainted supplement lawsuit, Tim Means is looking to renew his deal with the UFC, and get on the Rio Rancho card next year.
Washington, D.C. — Longtime MMA and UFC veteran Tim Means got back in the win column in a big way Saturday. At UFC on ESPN 7, Means pulled off a first-round submission win (guillotine) over Brazilian Thiago Alves. The win over the former lightweight title contender and fellow veteran moved Means to 29–11–1 (1NC) as a pro, in a career that started, at least professionally, in 2004.
Means, however, has been fighting since he was 17. And despite fighting out his UFC contract at UFC DC, he’s looking to stick with the promotion. “Right now, UFC’s been very good to me,” Means told reporters including Cageside Press backstage at the Capital One Arena. “They’ve got a show coming to Albuquerque, I’m interested in that show as of right now.”
Means fights out of the New Mexico city, although the Fight Night card is technically outside it. “It’s in Rio Rancho, but pretty much Albuquerque. I want on that card, it’s in February. We’ll see what happens with all that stuff.”
As for whether he’d prefer veterans like himself, or some up-and-comers, Means doesn’t seem to care. “You name one guy in the welterweight division that’s sh*tty. Name one. We can’t. I have too much respect for every guy in this division. The UFC knows that whoever they put in front of me, I’m going to come and fight and do my best to take out,” he said. “I don’t care who it is, put me at home in Rio Rancho and I’ll sell the sh*t out of tickets.”
The UFC just needs to “pony up” in terms of the money aspect, as Means put it. “Right now it’s about putting paychecks in my bank account. I finished that issue, the supplement issue, we settled on that, took care of that whole issue. So Christmas 2019 is looking very good.”
The “supplement” issue was a 2016 suspension due to testing positive for banned substance ostarine, frequently found in athletic supplements. Means traced the issue back to a supplement which had not listed ostarine on the label. A lawsuit followed. It wasn’t Yoel Romero money, he said, but “they made things right. We sat down in court and showed who was lying and who wasn’t lying or whatever.”
With the win against Alves on Saturday, Means feels he was able to make a statement. “I think so. I think I left off what my last fight was. Minus getting knocked down in my last fight. I won pretty much every second of that first round,” he surmised.
Watch the full UFC DC post-fight press scrum with Tim Means above!
