Tim Means (photo via UFC.com)

By Kelsey Mowatt

Tim Means may have had his four fight winning streak halted by Matt Brown at UFC 189, but the fighter isn’t letting the memorable loss keep him down.

Means was tapped to face the promotion’s #5 ranked welterweight on July 11th, after putting together an impressive run, which included stoppage wins over Dhiego Lima and George Sullivan. On paper, everyone understood that the bout had the potential to be a violent affair, and that’s exactly what went down.

“The Dirty Bird” stunned Brown not long into the bout, but the rugged vet managed to recover and return fire. After several more, thrilling exchanges, Brown secured a fight ending choke at the 4:44 mark of the opening round.

Recently Means appeared on Full Contact Fighter’s podcast, and while discussing the defeat, here is some of what the former lightweight had to say:

“That was my biggest fight right there and I thought everything was going pretty good,” said Means. “I fell a little short but I went out on my shield man. I left it all in the cage and I can’t complain about that. I’d rather have gotten that second check, but that being said man, I got some guy’s respect, and I did leave it all in there, so that’s a plus for me I guess.”

As Means noted, the contest was the biggest of his career, as a win over Brown could have moved the FIT NHB fighter into the promotion’s top 15 rankings. The bout also took place on what was one of the UFC’s biggest events to date.

“Nothing too different from any of the other fights,” said Means, when asked if he felt any extra nerves heading into his bout with Brown. “Nerves are always there, but once I got into the cage man I was super confident. Super comfortable once I got into the cage and that door shut and I was standing just across from him, and all the fans are talking and all that, it’s just me and Brown in there.”

“I felt good. My cardio felt good; everything felt good,” added Means. “So, I’ll just touch up, like I said, on the defensive aspect of it. There was a couple of times where I was inside that clinch and I let him get hands over top of my arms. Those are things I can fix. My coach Tom (Vaughn) told me not to do that, but things happen so fast in there that I kind of got lost sight of what I was doing I guess, and let him get the position on that last exchange, where I caught him with an elbow and he caught me back…”

With the loss, Means record fell to 24-7-1, while Brown’s moved to 20-13.

“I was in that fight,” the New Mexico fighter furthered. “I hurt Brown right out of the gate, like 30 seconds into the fight, I hurt him right out of the gate with a hook, had him on his bicycle getting away, so, with that being said I look forward to the next fight. Whoever they put in front of me, I’m going to go in there and try my damndest to win every time.”