You can bet Tim Means will continue to chase Diego Sanchez after recovering from his leg injuries.
Means has no issue expressing his dislike for Sanchez, allegedly stemming from Sanchez’s behind-the-scenes provocation of “Dirty Bird.” Means told the Pull No Punches podcast he has evidence Sanchez wormed his way out of fighting him.
“We reached out to [UFC matchmaker Sean] Shelby and said, ‘hey, we’d like this fight.’ I get an email from the UFC and they’re telling me Diego is matched for a fight in March but had to pull out for personal reasons,” said Means. “I didn’t hear anything from Diego, at all. A week later, Diego has re-signed his contract to fight Mickey Gall and then Diego gets on social media talking all sorts of s—t to me about how badass he is.”
“I have that message from the UFC saying Sanchez pulled out of his fight due to personal reasons,” he added. “As soon as he caught wind of me wanting to fight him... he reached back out to the UFC and re-signed the [Gall] fight and started yapping at me because he’s already busy.”
Means first challenged Sanchez after beating Ricky Rainey last year. “He said he couldn’t meet me at 170 because it was a disadvantage and that he would meet me at 145 to fight,” he revealed.
“Low and behold here is fighting Craig White [at welterweight],” Means shared. “This isn’t a pay check thing, it’s a pride thing. I would bet my purse on it and I would make sure I am Diego’s last fight.”
Means, 35, also opened up about his rough upbringing. “I went through a phase as a seventh or eighth grader. I had a couple step dads who were not the best of individuals when people weren’t looking,” Means reflected.
“When people were looking they had a different persona. They were all about Christ and Jesus, but when the doors were closed they were a different entity.”
“Rather than communicating and talking about what was going on, I let that fire build up and turn into rage,” he added. He started getting involved in street fights and ultimately “I wounded up getting myself shot and addicted to pain killers and morphine.”
He was ordered to court one day in his early 20s. “I looked at myself in the mirror sitting in a jail cell and I didn’t recognize myself. My daughter, Christine, was born my that time,” Means said.
“Every time I called home, my nephew would pick up and ask if I was still in jail. I realized then I had a lot of people looking up to me, because I was a fighter with regional titles, I was poisoning my family.”
Means’ self-reflection in his cell finally shook him enough to make positive changes in his life.
Means is coming off a knockout loss to Niko Price in what was one of 2019’s most exciting back-and-forth rounds.
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