Author: Damon Martin

Injuries can happen in the strangest ways sometimes.

It could just be putting a foot down and in an instant an ankle or a knee may pop out of joint. For UFC lightweight Tim Means, he never imagined in a million years the type of injury that would force him out of his last fight at UFC on Fox 5.

Literally just hours away from weighing in to face Abel Trujillo in Seattle, Means was doing what a lot of fighters were doing that day—cutting weight.

What happened next, no one could believe—least of all Tim Means.

“I woke up early like usual at 5:30 and got down to the sauna,” Means explained when speaking to Bleacher Report.  “The sauna wasn’t hot enough so I jumped in the Jacuzzi. My teammate Donald Sanchez went and turned up the sauna.  I jumped out of the Jacuzzi, jumped back in the sauna and started to sit down and get comfortable and as I laid down the sauna still wasn’t hot enough. 

“So I sat up and went to jump up abruptly to go check the temperature and turn it up a little bit more, and I just missed my hand placement. Wound up hitting my head off the corner of the bench and at first I thought somebody ran in and cheap shotted me.  I got all fuzzy.  I’ve never knocked myself out or went unconscious, but everything did get warm and fuzzy.  I felt the back of my head and I had a pretty big lump behind my ear.”

The crack to the back of his head left Means feeling dizzy and disoriented, which meant he was going to have to see the doctor.  Just a few hours later, Means was ruled medically unable to continue, and he had to be pulled from the UFC on Fox 5 card.

Overall, it was a rough few months for Means because he was also supposed to fight on the UFC 151 card in early September.  That show was cancelled altogether after the main event bout between Jon Jones and Dan Henderson had to be scrapped when Henderson suffered a knee injury just days away from the fight.

Now with his return to action set for Saturday night at UFC on Fox 7, Means is more than happy to forget the last few months of 2012 ever happened.

“It was heartbreaking,” Means explained.  “I’m extremely happy to put that time behind me and look forward to this next fight.”

Means says that instead of sitting around and sulking about the fact he didn’t have a fight, he put his frustration to use back in the gym.  Training under coach Tom Vaughn in New Mexico, Means pushed harder everyday to get better in the areas he was perceived to have weaknesses.

Now 10 months after his last trip to the Octagon, Means is happy to get back to the business of fighting. 

“No looking back, I just have to keep my head down and keep moving forward,” Means said.   “The slip and fall in Seattle is a blessing in disguise. It couldn’t have come at a worse time for me, but it also couldn’t have come at a better time.  I’m letting it motivate me and push me forward.”

This weekend in San Jose, Calif., Means takes on former Strikeforce lightweight contender Jorge Masvidal in a battle of two very hungry competitors.  Masvidal has also been on the shelf for an extended period of time and wants to impress in his UFC debut.

Means doesn’t plan on allowing Masvidal much of a celebration for his first UFC fight.  It may end up being a pretty rude welcome, actually, once Means finishes with him on Saturday night.

“I just really believe nobody’s really gotten in Masvidal‘s face and gone after him.  He’s a good counter puncher and he’s good at keeping fights at his pace. I’m going to see if I can’t get him into deeper waters and drowning him,” said Means.   “It’s going to have to be about getting him out of his realm and making him uncomfortable.”

The sauna that did him in at UFC on Fox 5 was definitely one of the stranger moments in Means’ professional career, but he’s seen much worse.  His plans now are to stay healthy and as busy as the UFC will allow him in 2013.

“This is the longest break I’ve had being out 10 months,” said Means.   “When I was in prison, I was fighting on a regular basis and when I got out prison in 2009, I ran my record to 22-1-1 to this point, so I’m staying extremely busy.  I’m ready to get in there and leave everything in the cage.”

Damon Martin is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report and all quotes were obtained first hand unless otherwise noted.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

UFC on Fox 7 headliner Gilbert Melendez never got involved with MMA to become a millionaire or to see his name on billboards.

Melendez has only had one goal in his career, and that was to be the No. 1 fighter in the world.  He’s come close to accomplishing that feat in the past with victories over champions from several organizations all over the world, but he never had the chance to face the champion from the biggest promotion in the business.

The UFC has always had the one champion Melendez could never get his hands on because he’s been in other promotions or fighting overseas.  He thought that all changed in October 2011 when UFC President Dana White announced (via MMAWeekly.com) that Melendez would be moving over to the Octagon from Strikeforce to compete in their lightweight division.

Unfortunately, contracts that were already in place from Strikeforce, with some blow back from Showtime (the broadcast partner of the promotion), kept Melendez from actually moving to the UFC at that time. 

The UFC then tried to persuade a top contender from their promotion to move over to Strikeforce to challenge Melendez, but even that effort failed.  Melendez points out that having that kind of reward dangled in front of him and then pulled away was a tough pill to swallow.

“You think you’re going to be fighting a UFC guy and you’re not.  You think you’re going to be going to the UFC and you’re not.  They switch up opponents.  You have to face a tough nemesis and you’re not there mentally completely,” Melendez told Bleacher Report.  “Then you’re trying to get back on track and you get injured.  Since the injury and since the recovery, things have been back on track training wise. It was an odd year, a roller coaster ride, but it’s alright.  It comes with the territory.”

Instead of coming to the UFC, Melendez ended up facing Jorge Masvidal and then stared at a third fight with old rival Josh Thomson in a rubber match of their trilogy of showdowns.  Melendez won the battles, but seemed to lose the public relations war because as highly touted as he had been, most expected him to steamroll both fighters and make it look easy.  A shoulder injury subsided Melendez for the remainder of 2012, and even he admits motivation was tough to come by in those last few months competing for Strikeforce.

“The goal is always to be No. 1 in the world and I hit a brick wall,” Melendez said.  “I had to re-evaluate things and focus on my business, and lost a little bit of the fire, lost a little bit of the motivation.  Those are all respectable opponents, but I just couldn’t reach my goal fighting them or beating them.  It was great challenges, no disrespect to them, but you’re trying to upgrade your stock.  They had everything to gain and I had everything to lose.

“It was safe to say maybe my motivation wasn’t there the last year and a half.”

The winds of fortune changed directions when Strikeforce folded earlier this year and Melendez, along with most of the roster, moved over to the UFC.  Melendez, however, is the only champion from the former San Jose-based promotion to get a title shot in his first fight with the UFC.  It reignited the flame for Melendez that was close to diminished for most of last year.

“It’s excitement, but more it’s a deep breath and you kind of just switch gears.  It was refreshing to get that message, that I’m finally going to be fighting in the Octagon.  I’m excited to unleash the beast,” Melendez said.  “It’s been hard.  I feel like I’m ready to send that message.  I think that a lot of people think that I am overrated, and I hope they are judging me from my last fights.  I hope Benson (Henderson) is as well, but I’m definitely going to be a different man.  I’m saying it here but more so I’m excited to show it.”

Melendez doesn’t mind pointing out that for every fight he’s had over the last few years, he’s always had an eye on whoever happened to be the UFC champion.  From B.J. Penn to Frankie Edgar and now to Henderson, it’s never been about whom the champion happened to be—only that he wanted to wrestle the gold away from them.

Like all of the Strikeforce fighters coming to the UFC, Melendez knows he has a little something extra to prove against Henderson.  There is a perception that exists that if a fighter isn’t winning in the UFC it doesn’t mean as much.

Melendez wants to prove that theory wrong by coming in for his debut fight inside the Octagon and walking out as the best 155-pound fighter on the planet.

“I’ve been envisioning this moment for a long time,” Melendez stated.  “I’ve been ready for this moment for a long time.  There’s been some hiccups here, there’s been some hurdles, but I’ve been ready for this.  The last four years I’ve been waiting to get this opportunity and I’ve tried to stay ready.  I’ve lost motivation, I’ve been up and down, but I’ve been ready for the last three or four years solid.  I’m ready to show everybody what’s up.

“Nothing really matters until I prove everybody wrong and win.  Nothing really matters until April 20. All the talk is going to be finished there.”

Melendez hopes to add the most important title he’s ever sought to his resume when he faces Henderson in the main event at UFC on Fox 7 this Saturday night from the HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif.

Damon Martin is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report and all quotes were obtained first hand unless otherwise noted.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com