Mixed martial arts veteran cutman “Stitch” Duran has been recently let go by the UFC because of the statements he made about the UFC’s latest deal with Reebok.
The veteran cutman, however, will not be jobless for long. After the news about him getting fired came out, Stitch received some gigs right away. He is already scheduled to appear in two important boxing fights. He will be the in the side of Andre Berto, who is going against Floyd Mayweather Jr. this coming September 12. He will be appearing as a cutman on Wladimir Klitchsko’s fight against Tyson Fury on October 24 as well.
Another positive thing that can come out of this event is the fact that Duran can now work for other MMA organizations like Bellator, World Series of Fighting, and a lot more. When Scott Coker of Bellator was asked if he would consider taking in Duran in their shows, he answered, “Stitch is a free agent. He’ll work for everyone – except the UFC.”.
Even though Duran won’t need to get himself out there just to find work, a lot of people still wondered if the real reason why he was fired was because of the statements that he made.
In a recent interview, Duran admitted he was fairly surprised that he was fired because of his statements. Although he knew that something is really going to happen because of the article, he did not think saying the truth would result to this He further added that even though he was let go because of what he said, he still stands by his statements because he believed what he said is true. He claimed that the it is not right for the UFC to include the cutmen in the Reebok deal, ask them to wear the Reebok apparel, which in turn drops their current sponsors, and then will not get compensated for it. Duran said without the sponsors, the cutmen will only earn much less than what an A-level cutman would get.
When Duran was asked if he thinks the UFC was just extra-sensitive about the Reebok case because they have been getting other criticisms about it, he said, “Oh, absolutely. The thing is there’s been so much negative talk about it. The last few fights that I did, all the fighters – a majority, 98% of them – weren’t happy with the outfits and I think maybe the UFC thought they didn’t need any more negative publicity. That they had enough. From a marketing standpoint, and I’ve worked for a marketing company, you look at the responses and you act accordingly. If you’re smart instead of arrogant you look at that and try to tweak it.”
Duran stated that he had been getting plenty of support from people to the point that he had to stop reading them because they have been reaching out to him all day. He had been getting support from fighters, the fans, the referees, even some of the commission members. However, he noticed that some people are wondering what’s the fuss all about. He said that fans don’t realize the importance of cutmen. Some of them even yell the instructions during the fight without knowing what they are really saying.
Before the interview ended, Duran was asked if he thought that what he did was a mistake. The veteran MMA cutman simply replied, “I’m not disappointed I made the comments. I’m glad you asked me what you did. I’m not going to be the one to bullshit about it. You asked me some good questions that I thought I answered honestly. The reality is they didn’t want to use my services anymore which I think is a shame and I think that the fighters are the ones that are really going to feel it.”