Everyone knows him, even though many may not know his name.Everyone has seen him, too, either in the corner at major boxingmatches or administering to another seemingly impossible situationin the cage, looking down on a fighter busted up over his eyebrowwith no hope of continuing. He is usually on the periphery, thebespectacled one with the thick head of black hair and whitesidewalls, a Q-tip dangling behind an ear, wearing rubber gloveswith a towel in one hand and a wad of sealant goop in the other,pressing it against a fighter’s face.
Jacob “Stitch” Duran is the guru of mixed martial arts cutmen.Anyone who knows anything about boxing or MMA knows him as one ofthe best quick-fix guys in the world. During the recent tiltbetween Joe Smith Jr. and Bernard Hopkins at the Forum inInglewood, California, there was Duran applying pressure to stauncha cut over Smith’s left eyebrow which was caused by a Hopkins’ headbutt earlier in the fight. As is typical with “Stitch,” a cut thatmay have caused serious problems was not an issue at all afterbeing treated by Duran’s magical touch.
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He has worked with many of the best in combat sports. On the boxingside, you have seen him in the corner of the Klitschko brothers,Andre Ward and most recently Smith, who closed the final chapter ofHopkins’ brilliant career by doing something no one else had donebefore: He stopped “The Executioner.” On the MMA side, you haveseen him at events for virtually every reputable promotion inexistence. He has worked with ChuckLiddell, MirkoFilipovic, LyotoMachida, ForrestGriffin and CainVelasquez. Duran has even worked fictional corners, as thecutman for character Mason “The Line” Dixon -- he was played byformer light heavyweight champion Antonio Tarver -- in “RockyBalboa” and as Adonis Creed’s cutman in the climatic fight scene atthe end of “Creed.” So it seems fair to say Duran has beeneverywhere, seen everything and worked on everyone this side ofMuhammad Ali and Bruce Lee.
His roots emanate from Planada, California, where he was born andraised in a migrant camp. His birth certificate reads CPC Camp No.12. As a kid, he picked everything from cotton to peaches out inthe fields. As soon as he was able to walk, he was doing it. Sun upwas his alarm clock and sun down ended days when he was paid threecents a pound. He occupied his mind daydreaming of being aprofessional baseball player. He still drives by those same fields;they give him energy.
Being a distinguished cutman is light years from where Duranprojected himself. He walked on to the baseball team at MercedCollege, in Merced, California, but when financial resources randry, he joined the United States Air Force. In 1974, he wasstationed in Thailand, where he was introduced to martial arts. Heimmediately fell in love with the fighting disciplines, absorbingeverything about them. Upon returning to the United States, heopened a local gym using a credit card and also wanted to sharpenhis boxing skills. He trained and promoted fights and even manageda few fighters. He then went to Las Vegas to learn how to become acutman. How does one know if he has the skills to become acutman?
“I was a trainer and a cutman, but when I moved to Las Vegas, I sawall of these boxing trainers, and being a cutman, I had that extradrive because I felt I was very good at wrapping hands and verygood at stopping cuts,” Duran said. “In time, I just floated to thetop. I wasn’t a medic in the army. I have a high school diploma;that’s it. My cutman skills came from practice and practice andpractice. I would hit the heavy bag to experiment on different waysin taping hands, and finally, I found the formula that I liked. Iused that formula for boxing and kickboxing. I got a goodreputation, and that evolved into treating cuts.
“I would look at what other cutmen did,” he added. “It’s reallyon-the-job training. There is no exact training method on how tobecome a quality cutman. It’s one of those things you have to justkeep doing. I would see how some cutmen worked and liked what Isaw, and I would see how others worked and learned from them how Iwould do things differently. I was really blessed with the peoplethat I’ve come across and how I got the reputation. The only wayyou become good at anything is through repetition, and luckily, Iwas able to work enough fights and with enough fighters to see justabout every cut.”
You close your eyes and listen to him. He says all he has is a highschool diploma, yet his wisdom is that of a Ph.D. He has writtenone book and is in the process of writing another. A documentary isbeing filmed on him -- probably because they know his face, eventhough many, except for the fighters, do not know his name. Theyall do. That is important to “Stitch” Duran.
The Train to Hell
Boxer Beibut Shumenov is a major star in Kazakhstan. He has heldmultiple titles and was about to fight faded titleholder WilliamJoppy in January 2011. Of course, Shumenov has the utmost respectfor Duran, so he was handpicked to be part of his corner. There wasjust one problem: Where the fight was taking place was enveloped byan overflow fog that blanketed the area. Instead of flying intoShymkent, Kazakhstan, Shumenov’s hometown, “Stitch” and the teamwere told they had to take a train -- an old, leftover Soviet trainfrom the 1950s, with the hammer and sickle on the front.
“We were 14 hours on the train, and you couldn’t see anything,”Duran said. “We were out in the middle of nowhere. The whole thingmade you scratch your head and wonder where anything was going.Every day was below zero, and the restrooms didn’t work, so I tooka bottle with me, and that’s where I went to the bathroom. That wasactually OK. We used the little areas that they set up for us tosleep. No one spoke English, but there were students there thatwere learning English, so they practiced on us. There was one timewhen I was awoken by sparks coming from the train. I thought, ‘Thisis it. This train is on fire.’ We were right in the middle of thetundra. There is nothing out there but white. Luckily, the sparks Isaw were the brakes of the train.
“The trip back was even crazier,” he added. “The fight was held inan ice rink -- the coldest place I ever worked a fight -- but wehad to take an 18-hour trip back on this raggedy bus. The mainopponent fell out, and Joppy stepped in and saved the whole card.The same fog we took the train in was there when we left on thebus. I was OK with it, but there were some of the passengers thatwondered if they were going to get home alive. I laughed.”
It Looked Like a Shark Bite
StefanStruve was in some trouble. The 7-foot monolith was fightingChristianMorecraft at UFC 117, under the AndersonSilva-Chael Sonnenmain event, on Aug. 7, 2010 at Oracle Arena, in Oakland,California. Struve returned to his corner after the first roundwith his lower lip torn. Duran never saw anything like itbefore.
“Stefan’s lower lip was shredded to the point where it looked likea shark just took a bite out of it,” Duran said. “The ringsidedoctor came in and was looking closely at the lip to evaluate him.The reason they stop fights is because some cuts put fighters at adisadvantage. Even though Stefan’s lower lip really looked bad, hewasn’t at a disadvantage.
“I went to work on his lip, and the doctor wanted to stop thefight,” he added. “The doctor asked me what I thought. From apsychological aspect, if you have a good plastic surgeon, he’ll befine. The thing was, all of the guys listening to my comment in theTV production truck all started laughing, but the doctor let thefight continue.”
Struve won the fight, as he knocked out Morecraft in the secondround.
“That was a very harrowing moment on my part,” Duran said.
The Cut of All Cuts
Duran could hear the fans’ oohs and aahs during the course of theMarvinEastman-VitorBelfort fight at UFC 43 “Meltdown” on June 6, 2003. Belfort hadslammed a knee into Eastman’s skull. It resulted in a massive gash,with a flapping piece of skin moving back and forth.
“One of the fans told me afterward, it looked like a filleted pieceof shrimp, because the skin was flopped over,” Duran said. “Eastmantook the knee from Vitor, [and] it knocked him out, really. Theystopped the fight, and working on the cut, I can hear the fans; andthe psychology of the cutman is extremely important. The cameraswere on us and the cut was being shown on the big screen, but Ireally didn’t know how Marvin was.
“Psychology is important and has to be used at certain times, likein getting a reaction from Marvin,” he added. “As I was working onMarvin’s cut, I told him, ‘This is the biggest [expletive] cut I’veever seen in my life. Marvin started turning around, and I couldsee a big smile on his face. He started laughing, and that let meknow that he was OK and aware. That was the reason why I said that.I saw Marvin recently and we laughed about that story, but it was areally dep cut. You could see down to the bone.”
Psychology, Duran found through the years, works as much as apanacea as gauze and sealant. He says he does it on a case-by-casebasis, taking in the situation and the fighter involved.
“By no means am I a psychologist,” Duran said, “but when you’vebeen in the business for a while, you’ve seen the shots these guyshave taken and cleaned up those shots; you know what they’re goingthrough when their mind is discombobulated. You figure out adispassionate way to have them respond to you and to have themrespect you. A good example of that was when Peter ‘Drago’ Sell gotknocked out by MattBrown.
“Sell was still fighting Brown and going crazy -- and everyone wastrying to calm him down,” he added. “The referee and the doctorswere telling him he got knocked out. He didn’t believe it. He wasfighting with them going crazy, and I pulled Pete’s head over andtold him, ‘Hey, Pete, look at me. You got knocked out.’ He turnedand told the doctors and referee, ‘Stitch, I believe.’ That’s thetrust that the fighters have in me. There has to be truth to mymessage to every fighter.”
Get Out of My Light
Duran has worked with some of the best and some of the wackiestfighters on earth. One of the most disrespectful moments involvedJasonMiller after his decision loss to Georges St.Pierre at UFC 52 on April 16, 2005. At first, Duran was notsure what “Mayhem” said when he tried cleaning his face.
“I’m working with him, I’m helping him and he cussed me out,” Duransaid with a laugh. “That dude was wacky as s---. JasonMiller just lost to Georges, and I remember him from being on‘Bully Beatdown.’ I was working his corner, and after the fight, wewanted to clean him up after the judges made their decision. I wasworking on him, and he told me, ‘Get the [expletive] out my light,’so I stepped away and got out of his light. I saw him two monthslater and asked him why he treated me like that. He said he wasjoking, but I made him apologize to me. He was wacky as hell. Whenhe told me to get the [expletive] out of his light, I got the[expletive] out of his light.”
One wild tale -- in an extremely positive way -- still echoes withDuran. It involves the late Corey Hilland his ill-fated fight with Dale Hartt atUFC Fight Night 16 on Dec. 10, 2008 in Fayetteville, NorthCarolina.
“Corey went to throw a kick, and Dale Hartt checked him andliterally broke his leg, and Corey was down and out,” Duran said.“I jumped into the cage and was holding him, and he’s screaming inpain. His leg was going one way, and his foot was going the other.He’s screaming, ‘Stitch what happened? What happened?’ I told himhe broke his leg and he could scream as loud as he wanted. He wasscreaming for his father, and Don House was the other cutman. Itold him to look for Corey’s father. What makes this story sospecial is they shot Corey up with morphine and they put him on agurney to take him out, and he says to me going by, ‘Stitch, Ialmost had him.’ My first thought was, ‘Wow, what a warrior.’ Hecame through one of the hardest moments of his life, and he wastelling me he almost had him.
“It’s a shame that Corey died at such a young age,” he added.“Something like that rips your heart away. You live and sweat withthese guys, and you build a bond with them. There’s a realconnection, and it hurt to hear about Corey’s death. That kid was areal warrior, and his fight against Hartt is something that I’llalways remember.”
The Bravehearts
There are a number of fighters who will always resonate with Duran.WanderleiSilva and ChuckLiddell are among them, which is why it was so hard for him tosee them fighting each other at UFC 79 on Dec. 29, 2007 in LasVegas. Liddell came away with the decision, suffering minor cuts,while Silva came out looking like he had been chewed up in a meatgrinder. A small gesture went a very long way with Duran after thefight.
“There are certain guys that you’ll always be close to, and I goway back with Wanderlei and [Mauricio] ‘Shogun’ Rua since theirdays in Pride [Fighting Championships]; and they’re the ones whogave me the nickname ‘Santana,’” Duran said. “I was working Chuck’scorner, and I remember speaking with Wanderlei a week prior to thefight and told him that [the] fight falls on my birthday. He saidhe’d send me some good karma. That’s the way we left it.
“It was a brutal, vicious fight with Chuck,” he continued. “Theseguys were just beating each other. You could hear the punches. Atthe end of the fight, Chuck had some small cuts, and when the bellrang to end the fight, I went to clean up Chuck; and just as afriend, I went over to see how Wanderlei was doing. He was prettybeat up. I asked him if he was OK, and he told me was. Then helifted his head, and after one of the toughest fight of his career,he says, ‘Hey Stitch, happy birthday.’ I thought, what courage andwhat thought that he responded to me like that. That’s what I meanabout these guys. They’re all special. Anyone who gets into thering or climbs into that cage is special. There is a courage thereI’ve found that normal people don’t have.”
Duran also sees Josh Barnettas someone who does not receive the credit he deserves for beingtough.
“I say Josh Barnett, because I worked with him in the days of Prideand in the first UFC events when he came back,” Duran said.“Talent-wise, I don’t think people gave him the respect hedeserved, because he was a master at catch wrestling. Catchwrestling was a style very, very few people knew. I was fortunateenough to watch him train with this grandmaster, Bill Robinson, anold wrestling legend, and seeing those two guys going at it waslike watching Mr. Miyagi and The Karate Kid. Josh was probably themost underappreciated hero I know.”
All fighters who enter the ring or the Octagon carry a certainamount of bravery with them, but there are some that possess anextra intangible that allows them to take punishment andrebound.
“I would definitely put DanHenderson on that list, as I would Chuck,” Duran said. “The waythey handle themselves in and out of the cage is completelydifferent. Once you close that gate, they become pit bulls,completely different. Silva is also someone I would put on thatlist. These guys are gladiators. I mean look at Wanderlei’s fightagainst Chuck. Look at Dan’s fight with Shogun. Those were specialfights by each one of them, win or lose. To me, I sit there atringside, even now, and this is a brutal business; it makes mewonder how in the world they could take those shots. The funnything about Shogun’s fight [with Henderson] was it was one of [the]UFC’s first five-round fights.
“It was a brutal fight, and after every round, I went up there totake care of Shogun,” he continued. “After the third round, heasked me if it was the last round and I went up to clean him upbecause I thought it was. Then I heard the 10-second warning forthe next round, and Shogun had to scramble to get back out there.He laughed. I didn’t think it was funny at the time. I blamedmyself. I should have known better. Shogun ran out and fought twomore hard rounds. I apologized to him, and he’s all battered andsays, ‘It’s OK Stitch.’ They got the bonus [for] ‘Fight of theNight.’ It was that great of a fight.
“You hear these guys hitting each other, cracking each other, andI’m glad I’m too old to be doing that,” Duran added. “Then afterthe fight, they turn into the nicest guys in the world and areready to hug each other. It’s phenomenal. When you’re in the backand you’re wrapping their hands, it’s like the old gladiator daysdown in the dungeon. They’re gladiators who don’t go out there andfight to the death, and I know that, but I’m also the one wrappingtheir hands, tending to their cuts and the one putting an armaround them, win or lose. That’s an honor in itself.”
JosephSantoliquito is the president of the Boxing Writer'sAssociation of America and a frequent contributor to Sherdog.com'smixed martial arts and boxing coverage. His archive can be foundhere.
