Tim Means Talks Upcoming Free Agency Status
There is only one fight on the UFC Fight Pass portion of the UFC 207 preliminary card, that fight is a welterweight division encounter between Tim Means and Alex Oliveira.
Means, who will only have one fight left on his current contract with the UFC after this fight, doesn’t want to navigate the free agency waters, but would rather just resign with the UFC.
“We negotiate on the third fight, and that’s the third fight on my contract,” Means told MMA Fighting. “I got an excellent contract after I lost to Matt Brown. I thought that was a fight I let get away from me, I thought I was whooping Matt Brown pretty good. I took an eye poke and it just kind of changed from there, I wasn’t able to see the guy or whatever excuse I need to come up with. But the UFC saw something and offered me a killer contract, one I was happy with, and you know, why not re-negotiate this time with another impressive performance with back-to-back knockouts? You can’t force those things, you just have to let them come to you, but I just have to get in there, be mean, and take the ‘Cowboy’ out of his realm. No, hell no. There is no one else taking care of us like the UFC is. I’m not testing free agency. I got cut, I came back, got suspended, went to $9 an hour. I know what I’m worth, I’ll speak up in those meetings, and I’ll be grateful that I got this opportunity to make 35 grand to show up, you know what I mean. I’m not going to bite the hand that feeds me, not when I realized how easily I can go from having some money in the account to being dirt poor, you know what I mean? Could things get better? Absolutely, but it comes with communicating and I think we’re there.”
Means admits that Oliveira doesn’t have much of a name value to the average MMA fan, but he’s still thinking about getting another “Fight Of The Night” bonus against him.
“He don’t have much flash to his name, but definitely a guy that I can have a Performance of the Night with and get two or three checks,” Means explained. “So it’s what this is about right now for any UFC guy or any martial artist period. There might be guys that are building themselves or whatever, but with muay thai and boxing and everything, I’m getting close to 40 fights, and it’s not a hobby no more. This is a job and this is how I pave my way, and you see guys like Sage Northcutt getting paid 60 grand, and you know, I could bury that dude easily. He’s an up-and-comer and he’s trying to build his name, but he shouldn’t be making more money than a lot of us, you know. I understand he brought hype with his karate stuff, but he hasn’t put in the same amount of time in the UFC as a lot of guys have and are not getting paid that type of money. So there are different things to talk about this year with Dana [White] and Sean Shelby and Joe Silva, if he’s still around, but I just have to go out there and perform and let things fall into place.”
UFC 207 takes place tonight from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada with Amanda Nunes and Ronda Rousey headlining.
