Five years after UFC release, cutman Jacob 'Stitch' Duran has no regrets (2024)

It’s been five years since Jacob “Stitch” Duran stopped working with the biggest MMA organization on the planet.

The world-renowned cutman exited the UFC in the summer of 2015 when the Las Vegas-based promotion ended its long working relationship with Duran after he spoke out against its exclusive apparel deal with Reebok.

In 2014, the UFC signed an exclusive six-year deal with Reebok, with $70 million set to be shared among the fighters. But while the deal offered fighters some level of compensation, it offered no such thing for cutmen, who were also subject to the same restrictions of not being able to carry sponsors’ logos.

Like many others, Duran wasn’t happy with the financial loss, and he was critical of the UFC-Reebok partnership in an interview with Bloody Elbow in July 2015. The following day, Duran announced that he had been told his services were no longer needed by the UFC.

But, to understand why Duran chose to speak out against the UFC-Reebok deal, a move that cost him his job, one must understand Duran’s backstory.

Duran was born in 1951 in Planada, Calif. Like his parents, he worked in agriculture as a field worker. Although he initially had his eyes on a sport other than MMA and boxing, a series of life decisions led him to combat sports.

“I was raised in the Central Valley of California, which is the capital of agriculture, and I was a farm worker all my life until I was 18,” Duran said on Monday’s episode of Hablemos MMA. “I worked in the fields, and I always wanted to play baseball, and I wanted to be professional, but I never had the opportunity because when I was in high school, I didn’t have a car. I didn’t have money, so I couldn’t.

“In 1972, I enlisted in the service and in ’74 they sent me to Thailand. I didn’t even know what Thailand was, but I did always say if I ever went to (Asia), I wanted to study martial arts. I watched my first muay Thai fight there, and I got hooked. That’s how I started.”

Duran later came back to the U.S. and studied western striking to complement his new muay Thai knowledge. Although Duran loved martial arts, he found himself drawn to the damage inflicted in combat sports. He then moved to Las Vegas to pursue his dream and became a cutman.

Duran eventually began working K-1 kickboxing at the Bellagio, and that’s when the opportunity to work with the UFC came his way in 2001.

“It was a big opportunity for me,” Duran said. “So I started with them, and I was there for 15 years. So what happened is that (the cutmen) and the fighters, we had sponsors, and sometimes we would make more money with the sponsors than what the UFC would pay us. And that was fine. We needed the UFC to make money from the sponsors.

“Then they signed a deal with Reebok, and the contract said that nobody could have sponsors, only Reebok. So they took away all the sponsors from the fighters and also the cutmen. The fighters were upset. They weren’t happy, the fans weren’t happy, nobody. So at that time, John Nash from Bloody Elbow, I didn’t even know him, but he asked me if I wanted to do an interview about how the Reebok deal affected the cutmen and their sponsors.

“So, as I told you at the beginning of this interview, I was raised in the Central Valley of California as a farm worker. That was around the times of Cesar Chavez (Mexican-American civil rights activist). I remember I was like 12, 13 years old when Chavez … my parents were involved in the protests so things could improve for the field workers so we could get water, bathrooms and those things that are minimal, but are important.

“So I remember when Cesar Chavez was going from Delano, California to the capital of Sacramento protesting about the grapes and Coors beer because they weren’t supporting us. So when (Nash) called me to do the interview I thought about what happened with my parents and what was going on with the people. We were fighting for rights of the farm workers, and I thought, ‘If I don’t do the interview I’m not representing the family well.'”

The next day Duran got a call from a UFC official telling him he no longer worked for the promotion. “Stitch” admitted the news hurt, but he knew it was coming.

“That was like a slap in the face, but I knew I put myself in that situation,” Duran explained. “But, being a Latino, I needed to fight for my rights.”

The UFC-Reebok deal, which ends in March 2021, has been criticized by many but also praised by others. Some have claimed the uniformity has cleaned up the sport and given a more respected status to the UFC due to its association with a major sports brand.

Although cornermen lost their entire sponsorship revenue and many fighters saw cuts in income because of the deal, some fighters in Latin America have actually benefited, as they get paid in dollars, which often turns out to be more than a sponsor would pay for promotion back in their home countries.

But for Duran, losing his job with the UFC turned out to be a benefit, as he continued to grow his freelance cutman business within combat sports.

Duran now does plenty of work across many organizations, including Top Rank boxing and BareKnuckle FC. He’s been involved in several significant bouts, including in Tyson Fury’s corner for his February win over Deontay Wilder. He’s also appeared in a number of films including Creed, Creed II, Here Comes The Boom,and others.

Looking back, Duran said he doesn’t regret his comments back in 2015.

“No, I was very at peace (with my decision),” Duran said. “When that happened, I was thinking, ‘OK, well, what am I going to do now? Where am I going to go?’

“But with all the support I got, and many people around the world reaching out, that gave me the energy and the confidence that I did the right thing, so I’m happy. People ask me, ‘Hey have you seen Dana?’ and I’m like, ‘No, I haven’t seen him.’ ‘And if you see him, what are you going to say?’ If I see Dana, I’ll shake his hand and thank him for letting me go because everything is going much better than before.”