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Welterweights
NR | Tim Means (31-12-1, 13-9 UFC) vs. NR | Nicolas Dalby (19-3-1, 3-2-1 UFC)Advertisement
Means might be slowing down at 37 years of age, but “The Dirty Bird” spent the latter half of 2020 thankfully proving that he is not done yet. After a brief run at lightweight, Means returned to the UFC in 2014 at his much more natural weight class of 170 pounds, then went about proving himself as one of the promotion’s premier purveyors of violence. Means’ approach of leveraging pressure and offense in exchange for defense has led to some rough patches, but he has historically been able to rely on his durability to see him come out on top in an eventual war of attrition. That made his two most recent losses to Niko Price and Daniel Rodriguez quite worrying, as both came via knockout. Price is a hard enough hitter that the loss could be written off a bit, but without Rodriguez having that reputation, the concern was that Means’ chin had deteriorated to the point of negating his entire approach. Means was thankfully able to survive his last two bouts against Laureano Staropoli and Mike Perry, both clean wins, and it has been a pleasure to watch him work with an entertaining style that has been refined through years of fighting.
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Up next for Means is Dalby, who should provide an interesting challenge and a fun fight. Dalby came into the UFC in 2015 with a considerable amount of hype, as the Dane was considered one of the better strikers on the European scene. While Dalby’s UFC career started well enough—a win over Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos and a draw against Darren Till have each aged quite well—two straight losses resulted in his suddenly finding himself outside of the promotion. After struggling with alcohol and depression, Dalby battled his way back to the UFC in 2019, when his return win over Alex Oliveira in Copenhagen, Denmark, provided an underrated highlight of the year. Like Means, there was some concern that Dalby’s durability had faded and threatened to blow apart his entire approach—those worries mostly stemmed from a loss-turned-no contest against Jesse Ronson in July—but “Lokomotivo" looked like his old self with a win over Rodriguez in November. This could wind up as the best fight on the card and really could go either way. Dalby figures to be the faster fighter to start, and it is just a matter of when Means is able to start tracking him down and winning exchanges on pace and volume. Dalby could find some success slowing it down in the clinch if things start to turn south, but Means still figures to have the more effective offense over the total balance of the fight. The pick is Means via decision.
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