Following the firing of veteran cutman Jacob “Stitch” Duran, the question is obvious: Why would you do that, UFC?

In his latest edition of The Speed Bag, MMAjunkie columnist Ben Fowlkes discusses the news, which broke on Tuesday after Duran confirmed he was axed after speaking out against Reebok, which recently signed an apparel/sponsorship deal with the world’s most prominent fight promotion.

Duran, who has long worked corners for both MMA and boxing events, has been outspoken of Reebok’s new cutmen uniforms, both in form and function, as well as the loss of sponsorship revenue that resulted from them.

“It’s pretty generic,” Duran recently told MMAjunkie Radio after UFC 189 earlier this month. “The vests were generic. Twitter was going crazy. People were talking about it that it wasn’t me. Going way back to the vest – this goes way back to when I was starting with Tapout. (Tapout co-founder Charles ‘Mask’ Lewis Jr.) was literally the one who created the vest profile for me. I’ve carried that on to One More Round and to Bad Boy and all that. … I felt real naked with just the vest that I had.”

In the above video, Fowlkes explains how the UFC’s quick retribution simply made the matter worse and further compounded criticism of the Reebok deal. It’s also a real loss for the fighters who depend so heavily on officials like Duran.

Check it out above.

And for more on the UFC’s upcoming schedule, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.