UFC 184 Post-Mortem: Means to an End

---

Tim Means has started to build some equity within the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s shark tank of a welterweight division.

The former multi-division King of the Cage champion blew through “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 19 finalist Dhiego Lima at UFC 184 “Rousey vs. Zingano” on Saturday at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, dispatching the Atlanta-based Brazilian with punches just 2:17 into the opening round of their undercard clash. Means has pieced together a three-fight winning streak -- this was the first finish in that stretch -- since he wound up on the wrong side of a unanimous decision against Neil Magny a little less than a year ago.

“It’s better than losing three in a row. I can’t complain,” he said during a post-fight media scrum. “Timing drills are working in practice. I’ve been kind of getting a pet peeve of getting guys hurt and not getting them out of the fight, so I’ve really been working on my drilling, working on my timing and being a little more patient and just using my best weapons, which are my elbows, stopping takedowns, all that good stuff. Things are really starting to work out.”

Means caught Lima with punches against the cage and folded him with an exquisitely time knee strike upstairs. He then unleashed his full repertoire, from straight punches to standing elbows. He pursued Lima across the Octagon once he stumbled to his feet, dropped him into a slouched position with a straight left and polished off the stoppage with subsequent punches.

“This fight gets me another fight,” Means said. “No matter who it is, there’s lots of guys in the division. Keep lining them up, and I’ll keep trying to knock them out. I just think I need to keep improving myself in the division and bigger fights will come.”

Borrowing from the Donald Cerrone playbook, Means plans to stay prepared in case the UFC requires his services in the coming weeks and months.

“He’s a drop-his-hat-and-fight-anytime [kind of guy], and I have that same mentality,” he said. “I’m in shape all the time. I like to fight all the time.”

BEASTLY REBOUND

Former Legacy Fighting Championship titleholder Derrick Lewis now sits at 3-1 inside the UFC’s heavyweight division and remains one of its more physically imposing specimens.

The monstrous 6-foot-3, 263-pound New Orleans native bounced back from a knockout loss to Matt Mitrione in September to put away South African grappler Ruan Potts with second-round punches at UFC 184. “The Black Beast” fought through a series of leg lock attempts from the increasingly desperate Potts, methodically chipped away at the judo black belt with his ground-and-pound and eventually found the finish 3:18 into the second round.

Lewis, 30, would prefer to return to the cage sooner rather than later.

“I don’t want to spend too much time off,” he said. “Two months, a month and a half, next week -- it don’t matter. I want to get back in there quickly.”

MISCELLANEOUS DEBRIS

UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey has finished her last three opponents -- Cat Zingano, Alexis Davis and Sara McMann -- in a grand total of 96 seconds ... Undefeated Jackson-Wink MMA representative Holly Holm made a successful organizational debut in the co-headliner, as she took a split decision from Raquel Pennington. UFC President Dana White at the post-fight press conference pumped the brakes on a much-talked-about Rousey-Holm showdown. “A lot of hype came in around Holly. What people have to understand for Holly: It’s her first time. It’s her first time in the UFC. I talked to her about this tonight, too. I don’t care how many titles you’ve won, how many places you’ve fought, when you come in here, it’s a completely different ball game. You burn a ton of nervous energy. You dump some adrenaline. She went in there tonight, and she performed. She slid right into the co-main event position and she did a great job. Let’s let her get a couple of fights and start to feel like the UFC is her home and it’s her house and move up in the rankings. She’s got some time to get there,” he said ... Reign MMA’s Jake Ellenberger, who tapped Josh Koscheck with a north-south choke in the second round of their welterweight showcase, went eight years, 11 months and 17 days between submission victories ... During his current five-fight winning streak, “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 13 winner Tony Ferguson has landed 98 more total strikes than his opponents, per FightMetric ... Roan Carneiro’s rear-naked choke left Mark Munoz unconscious 1:40 into the second round of their middleweight pairing, giving the Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt his first win inside the Octagon since he took care of Tony DeSouza with second-round punches at UFC 79 in December 2007.

ETC.

UFC 184 “Rousey vs. Zingano” drew an announced crowd of 17,654 to the Staples Center for a $2.675 million gate.