The highly anticipated Welterweight bout between Tim Means and Artenas Young went down two nights ago on Friday night and the Legacy FC main event came and went very quickly and if you left to take a break from watching the show, there is a good chance you missed the fight. “The Dirty Bird” was able to pick up a second consecutive TKO finish when he barraged “The Machine Gun” with punches that followed up a clean knee that Means snuck in during an exchange. The fight was intriguing and extremely important in so many different facets and SWFight took the time to dissect some of those points.
Leading up the fight, SWFight compiled “Keys to Victory” for both Means and Young where we gave our opinion as to what was important for both fighters in seeking out a marquee victory. The fight would only last eight seconds past the 90-second mark which means a lot of the points we covered were impossible to see themselves through; however, a lot can be said despite the short time of the fight.
Official Result: Tim Means defeats Artenas Young via TKO (Strikes) Round 1 – 1:38
In the immediate aftermath of the bout, it can be said that the win would have been huge for both fighters. If Young would have captured victory then it would have been the biggest win of Young’s career and for Means, the win gets him closer to getting back to the sports premier organization where he went 2-2 as a UFC fighter. Means improves to 20-5-1, winning his twentieth career victory while Arttenas Young dropped to 10-7. The fight was of high intrigue in our New Mexico area as Means has been a longtime member of the FIT NHB “Wild Bunch” fight team and Young has spent considerable time with Chris Luttrell and crew at the Lutrell’s MMA gym formerly Mean 1 MMA.
Artenas Young was never able to find this range in the bout with Tim Means. Unfortunately for Young, that lack of range cost him in the only significant exchange.
Young’s Keys To Victory
In the “Keys to Victory” article for Artenas Young (detailed here) we touched on three points; range, wrestling and weathering the storm. Unfortunately for Young, he wasn’t able to really get into a rhythm within the one minute and thirty-eight seconds. Backpedaling the entire fight, it seemed as if Young never found his range; even when Young threw strikes they were just out of range and didn’t force Means into any uncomfortable spots. Young failed to find that range for a number of reasons including that Young didn’t seem comfortable to put weight on his lead leg. When backpedaling, Young took away his own ability to land with significant power and with any sort of offensive efficiency. It is extremely difficult to do any of that when your rear leg holds your weight taking steps backwards. Also, Young often found himself backpedaling straight backwards and not working the angles; Bellator Champion Eddie Alvarez has backward angles down perfect as he uses backward momentum to find openings and he steps into a punch and often catches opponents off guard.
Young was never able to get off a takedown attempt in the short span of fighting which could have been a huge difference maker. A takedown attempt is almost impossible when exploding off of your back foot and should Young have attempted a takedown, there is a good chance Means would have read it and could have stuffed it or worse, Means could have timed a knee as a counter.
The Keys For Means
We touched on three points for Means as well prior to the Legacy FC match-up. Just like in the case of Young, it was hard to see any of them come into fruition due to the short nature of the fight. The defensive wrestling wasn’t in display as Young never threatened the takedown but the other two keys were actually in display even though they may have been overlooked as the finish was the highlight of the quick bout.
One of the areas of advantage that Means often enjoys his ability to out pace fighters and in less-than two minutes Means outpaced Young. While Means wasn’t throwing in high volume he was stalking his opponent around the cage. While Young back pedaled, Means enjoyed the comfort of walking down an opponent without much fear of being countered and that showed when Means taunted Young by placing his hands at his hips. Means pushed the pace which clearly had Young uncomfortable.
The other and most important observation of the fight in context of our breakdown was having confidence in the strikes thrown by Means. Means has always been very loose and free in his delivery of strikes and when Means finally found his range to engage Young near the cage, Means unleashed a brutal knee that got through the guard of Young and completely changed the pace of the fight. The knee would stun Young and would spell disaster soon after. Tim means is arguably the best fighter in the entire sport (with Jose Aldo in the argument as well) at finishing a fighter that he has hurt. Everything about Means onslaught on hurt fighters is vicious, ruthless and dominant. Young wasn’t able to weather the storm and Means was able to let loose on huge power strikes to get the fight finished.
A game plan is administered in just about every MMA fight. That game plan for Tim Means often involved lots…. and lots of striking. His team at FIT NHB definitely prepared him for this main event bout.
Looking at some post-fight observations
During the lead up to the fight, much was discussed about Young training down the highway from Means and his FIT NHB camp. Young trained with Chris Luttrell at Lutrell’s MMA making this fight an inner-city match-up. While Chris Luttrell is a very respected coach in the MMA community and his staff of coaches are also very vaunted; it was clear that Tom and Arlene Vaughn had Means prepared for this fight. Not a lot goes spoken about out coaching one another in MMA as that type of discussion often is left for team sports but in all fairness, without a solid team and direction most fighters wouldn’t be as prepared as they typically are for these type of marquee fights.
The talk before the fight mentioned Young training with Lutrell’s MMA as well as sharing time inside the world-renowned Jackson-Winkeljohn gym which often deters fight fans to believe that fighters coming from that gym should more often than not be considered favored to win. Tim Means in victory really solidified the Albuquerque’s FIT NHB gym as an elite level team that is prepared to send fighters into the big leagues. Of course, it is known that Means has already been in the UFC but this comeback tour for Means that includes a knockout over Pete Spratt shows that the gym definitely has the talent and coaching to keep providing top caliber fighters. Add in that they also have Ray Borg emerging as one of the state’s best and it is safe to call FIT NHB one of the state’s top gyms.
Tim Means is a bonafide star and his swagger on the microphone post-fight is something that will gain notoriety. Means called for a fight in early-April’s Legacy event in Albuquerque that will be co-promoted by Fresquez Productions. It will be interesting to see how that plays out, should Means be placed on that card we will see if Means can become a top draw for the area and really boost his fandom in the area. That increases if Legacy decides to put their promotion’s title on the line which will put Legacy FC in an interesting position to find a title challenger for Means to fight.
That’s it fight fans! That is our post-fight analysis on the main event of Legacy FC 27: Means vs. Young. What did you guys think of the fight and we would love to hear you chime in your opinion on what both fighters did well and things they didn’t do so well!
