Local Fighter Danny Salinas Faces His Toughest Challenge on Saturday March 17

Updated: This fight did not happen due to Means signing with the UFC. My apologies.

At the age of 30 Danny Salinas out of Edinburg, Texas is heading into Saturday night against Tim “Dirty Bird” Means (15-3-1) for Mean’s welterweight belt in the main event of the “King of The Cage” show that can be seen live on pay-per-view. After making his pro debut in 2008 Salinas has been a rising star here in the valley, taking out larger opponents in his quest to be the best. This fight will be no different as he will be giving up height and the comforts of his backyard to establish himself as a top contender in foreign land.

Tim Means

Salinas will walk in as a huge underdog against the more established and seasoned Means. Mean’s last fight was on February 15 against Bernardo Magalhaes who he defeated on the undercard of UFC on Fuel Sanchez vs Ellenberger by decision. Means is trained by the former trainer of UFC welterweight champ, Carlos Condit,Tom Vaughn. Vaughn trained Condit all the way to the top of WEC when Condit was still a teenager and is the current MMA head coach at the new Power MMA & Fitness in Arizona that is owned by UFC fighters: Ryan Bader, NCAA All-Americans Aaron Simpson and C.B. Dollaway, as well as knockout artist Robbie Lawler.

(Tom Vaughn)

Even with Means taking a sabbatical from fighting after a 3-2 start he has came back like phoenix rising from the ashes of his personal issues to capture wins from some very tough opponents that lead him to eventually capturing the King of the Cage welterweight title. Mean has only gone to the scorecards twice in his career which doesn’t bode very well for Salinas.

Salinas last encounters are aren’t going to help him in this fight against Means as Salinas has only really fought one legit fighter and that was Michael Costa who fights out of Wanderli Silva’s gym, born out of the Chute Box Academy and was slated to make his Bellator debut last year but was forced to withdraw due to injury. It’s really no fault of Salinas since there seems to be a lack of competition here in his home promotion of STFC. Salinas has a pretty good record of 11-3 but the numbers really don’t reflect the type of competition he has fought. As mentioned, most of the fighters were just padding for his record with the only true prospect he faced in Costa who overwhelmed Salinas in size and power. Never laying his head low, Salinas has won his last three fights since that defeat and is now in a promising position to establish not only himself but the progress of the Valley when it comes to Mixed Martial arts. Salinas, like Means, experienced his own setbacks in life with Salinas admitting to Valley Tudo(see below for video) in a interview that he was extremely overweight and too involved with drugs. The once 270lb Salinas is now at a lean and clean 155 which serves as a reminder how hard Salinas has worked ever since he started his MMA journey back in 2005.

If Salinas defeats Means it will show that he is at the front door of his dream of fighting in a Zuffa owned mixed martial arts promotion. Now all Salinas has to do is kick that mutha down and walk-in and sit on the couch like he deserves to be there. Salinas did audition for the recent Ultimate Fighter but did not make the final cut and here is his chance to show that he belongs with top comepetition. At 155 I’m a bit curious if Salinas has tossed his name in the UWF tournament that will be running in the early part of Summer. One thing is for sure- Salinas has nothing to lose here. If he loses, he can asset his abilities against the caliber of a UFC fighter and realize what he has to improve on. If he wins he will be a bleep on the radar of the MMA scene and hopefully for him, that grants him an opportunity to fight in the big leagues.