UFC Rio Rancho: Emotional Tim Means Reflects on Loss, Reports Incurring Knee Injury Early On

Although Tim Means took a loss at UFC Rio Rancho, on a night that he was fighting in memory of Pete and Mateo Sandoval who recently died in a car crash, the rugged vet spoke with media following his defeat.

Means reports incurring a knee injury

As per usual with Means, “The Dirty Bird” came out pressuring Daniel Rodriguez in their prelim bout. But, just as the horn sounded for round one, Rodriguez dropped Means with a hard shot. The rugged vet managed to get back to his feet, and resumed his attacks in round two. But, in the second frame, Rodriguez scored with a few more, heavy strikes and tapped Means out with a guillotine choke.

After the loss, the 35-year-old Means reported the following, while reflecting on the fight (quote via MMA Junkie):

“Hats off to Rodriquez and his team,” said Means. “About a minute-and-a-half, second minute, I popped something in my knee, so we’re going to go and get that checked out. But, great fight on that guy’s part. I tried to tough it out (and) push through, and he hit me in the back of the head at the end of the first round. Again, I just wanted to fight or whatever. It just wasn’t my night. Hats off to those guys, they had a good night. I thought maybe it was just my knee that was hurt or whatever, but he caught me pretty good, so you can’t take it away from him.”

“It was his night,” he admitted. “(I’ll) settle back and fix some things we did wrong, but all in all, I got out here and fought my ass off and did the best I could with it, and that’s all I could ask out of myself.”

Hopefully the injury isn’t too serious, especially since Means missed a good chunk of 2019 after breaking his leg in his bout with Niko Price last March.

Means comments on fighting in memory of the students

As noted above, it was an emotional night for Means, following the tragic death of the students Pete and Mateo Sandoval. While discussing his hope to score a win in memory of them, Means said this:

“Life goes on,” he said. “(I) didn’t get the win tonight, but I did the best I could to fight for them. Love my people, love my state. ‘Get better every day.’ It’s what Pete would say. So we win some, we lose some. We’ve just got to learn from this and move on. Pete and Mateo are great guys, great kids. I was proud to work with them.”

If you haven’t seen the video of Means discussing the above, it’s definitely worth a watch. Here’s hoping Means has a full and speedy recovery and we see him back in the Octagon soon.