LAS VEGAS, NV - OCTOBER 07: Dana White speaks to the media during the UFC 229 post fight press conference at T-Mobile Arena on October 7, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)

A person who is expelled by the premier organization in his field rarely lands on his feet. Stitch Duran is an exception.

It was July 2015 when Jacob “Stitch” Duran, a renowned cutman and well-known combat sports personality spoke to the media about how a newly-implemented Reebok deal would be detrimental to cutmen, who could not only no longer wear their own sponsors, but would receive no compensation for their advertisement of Reebok on their uniforms. He fired from the UFC the very next day leading a massive outcry from fans calling him a martyr.

“To be referred to as a Martyr are strong words,” Duran told FanSided. “But to look back at what I did, I guess that is a compliment. I did take one for the team.”

Duran continued on, recounting how everything went down.

“Months before, Mike Mersch, who was an attorney for the UFC approved sponsors for fighters and cutmen, gathered the cutmen for a meeting and began by simply saying, ‘my only interest is Frank, Lorenzo, Dana, Zuffa and the UFC.’ Right off the bat, we were prepared for the worst case scenario. Without much discussion, Mersch said we would not be allowed to wear any sponsors on our uniforms when the Reebok deal starts. During that meeting we asked for an increase in pay and were told that it would not happen.”

But Duran didn’t just roll over, he continued to fight for the rights of the cutmen who would be adversely affected by the change.

“I had tried a couple other times to meet with Mike Mersch, to see if they would agree to a pay raise for the cutmen. The answer remained the same: no. When the Reebok deal started, the fighters, trainers, fans and media all hated the program. Uniforms sucked and fighters where pissed because they had lost tons of money losing their sponsors.”

Duran was vocal on social media and in the MMA community and that’s when Bloody Elbow reached out for an interview.

“[Bloody Elbow journalist] John Nash contacted me and asked me if I would be interested in doing an interview on how the Reebok deal affected the cutmen. Understanding that financially I could not continue to work with the UFC based on their pay scale, I figured this would be a good time to express myself on how it also affected me and the other cutmen.”

What would follow next was somewhat of an internet firestorm in the MMA world. Duran was terminated by the UFC based his comments made in the article, and from there a very public fiasco ensued.

“When John Nash published the interview on Bloody Elbow, it instantly went viral,” says Duran. “A couple days later my wife and I were shopping at Costco and I get a call from Jess Gonzales, who also worked with Mersch. He asked if I had a moment to talk. I told him I could talk to him in about an hour after I got home. I kind of expected him to tell me to tame it down, as the UFC was getting so much negative press.”

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.

“An hour later the phone rings, Jess and Mark are on the phone. Both of them are friends who I had worked with for many years and had tons of respect for. Mark, always the one being politically correct, was on the phone and said in a shaky voice, ‘because of the interview you did about the Reebok deal, the UFC is not going to use you anymore.’ It hit me like a ton of bricks. I definitely didn’t expect such a harsh comment. Having so much respect for Jess and Mark, I didn’t want to blast and disrespect them. I knew they were only the messengers.”

Duran, who always had a previously close relationship with UFC President Dana White unraveled.

“I composed myself and finished by telling them ‘do me a favor and tell Dana that he doesn’t have any balls. He should have called me personally.’ After I got off the phone, my wife and I looked at each other in disbelief.”

Duran’s dismissal became the biggest news story in the MMA world for a long time, a rarity in its typically short news cycle. It was clear that the community stood united in support for Duran, their beloved cutman.

“I was blown away by all the support I received worldwide. I was receiving calls from promotions worldwide offering me jobs, UFC Fighters, trainers and even UFC employees,” says Duran. “The phone stayed hot with support for the longest time. Years later, fans still stop me everywhere I go and show me their support.”

And his support extended even outside of the MMA community.

“During the Premier for Creed, Hollywood superstar Wesley Snipes comes up to me and said ‘the UFC did you wrong’. At that point, I understood that I had made the right choice.“

Of course, despite the immense support that Duran received during his ordeal, there’s an obvious question to ask: does he now regret making the comments that led to his termination?

As the situation continued, White became more and more involved and eventually had his own interview.

“Karyn Bryant interviewed Dana and asked him ‘will Stitch Duran be back?’ His response was ‘No’ and continued saying that ‘if we were friends, he should have called me’. Then he puts his foot in his mouth and said the stupidest thing he could have said by saying, ‘Stitch and I were never friends.’ It was like he poured gas all over himself and it blew up in his face. I laughed at his comment, but it shed a light on how much he had changed.”

The change in White and the UFC’s practices have come under scrutiny time and time again at a time when the sport of MMA and the UFC brand have grown to massive mainstream success. This narrative would become key to the entire debacle surrounding Duran’s termination, and his relationship with White.

“I knew Dana long before the UFC,” says Duran. “I was training fighters and he was doing pad work for casino executives and their wives. Working a K-1 show at the Bellagio here in Las Vegas, Dana approached me and asked me for my card. The next day he called me and told me they had bought the UFC and wanted to know if I would be interested in working with them. At that time, the legend Leon Tabbs was the only cutman. I said yes and from there on, my life changed.”

Duran says that in those early days White was different than he is today.

“In those days, Dana was also learning and was such a humble guy. Fast forward to the days of the Reebok deal, his personality made a complete change. He became arrogant and disrespectful. When we started with the UFC, everyone had a name. Now they are numbers.“

The UFC would be sold to WME-IMG for $4 billion just a few years later and, for Duran, it became clear that decisions had been part of an effort to make the UFC more buyer-friendly leading up to the sale.

“As I look back, of course, the Reebok deal was an early step in creating a marketable company to sell,” he said. “I can’t hate the Fertitta brothers for being masters at what they do. For them, it is all business. Knowing what transpired with the UFC, I understand the importance of treating fighters and trainers with respect.“

Duran is currently still actively working as a cutman but has not returned to the UFC.