Famed cutman Jacob ‘Stitch’ Duran was unceremoniously told he would no longer be working for the UFC after he voiced public criticism of the Reebok deal. He later said he was open to returning to the UFC, and suggested all it would take is an apology from UFC president Dana White, and that White, who he described as a friend, should have called him personally.
That’s not happening.
He won’t be coming back, said White on the FOX Sports 1 post-fight show as transcribed by Mike Bohn for MMAjunkie. The crazy thing is, is first of all, we have 10 cut men that work here at the UFC. We have 10 cut men. Lorenzo and I decided that we would hire cut men for the fighters early on when we started – when we bought the UFC, and ‘Stitch’ Duran needs to learn what the meaning of the word, ‘friend’ is. ‘Stitch’ Duran and I were never friends. We were work associates. We came up together in the boxing world and when we hired cut men he was one of the guys that we brought in here.
Friends are people you call on the phone and hang out with and talk to on the phone all the time. Don House, who was one of our cut men, he and I were very close and still are, but ‘Stitch’ Duran was never my friend. And ‘Stitch’ Duran, another thing about ‘Stitch’ Duran saying I should have called him. I’ve never dealt with the cut men ever. We have a department for that. We weren’t friends. We’re not friends and no, he shouldn’t have been expecting a call from me. And if he’s my friend, why didn’t he reach out to me? If we were such good friends and all that. So that’s that.
Stitch will be working at World Series of Fighting 22: Palhares vs. Shields on August 1, 2015 in Las Vegas, Nevada. This event will air on NBCSN in the U.S and on Fight Network in Canada.
