One of the fascinating side effects of running a successful promotion like the UFC is that even the foundational figures begin to share in the celebrity. At some point, the UFC became a traveling band of loveable cartoon characters popping up at different ports all over the globe.



Back when he was still babysitting the stars of the UFC, Burt Watson was hounded fairly regularly for photos everywhere he went. "Big" John McCarthy and "Bigger" Dan Miragliotta, same thing. When she’s not checking her texts or lost in a drift of philosophical thought, Arianny Celeste is a frequent target of selfies and otheries. Bruce Buffer, Marc Ratner, Goldie and Rogan, Reed Harris, Kea the Bodyguard, Joe Silva, Sean Shelby -- all of them are recurring characters in the show. Real connoisseurs can even spot a Donna Marcolini.



Then there is cutman Jacob "Stitch" Duran, the mustachioed fellow who made sure fighter’s faces didn’t fall apart between rounds and after a fight. Duran has been a staple in the UFC for the last 14 years, going back to UFC 33. He’s forever been a part of the circus. His swift and non-intrusive ability to treat facial trauma between rounds is a thankless art form. Whenever an eye is puffing up out of proportion from punches and kicks, he’s been quick with the enswell. He squeegees streams of blood and slathers adrenaline and petroleum jelly on gaping areas in the small recesses of a fight as deftly and as dutifully as a battlefield medic. He is a sublime hand at on-the-fly fighter safely. And his vests, which rightfully carry a ravaged post-apocalyptic feel for the type of job he is performing, have become part of his identity. He is a sweet man, but for those who’ve never met him, those vests, in conjunction with his swabs, are his only identity.



"Stitch" got canned on Tuesday for answering questions in an interview about, of all things, those vests. As you may have heard, the UFC-Reebok partnership began at UFC 189, which means all visible parties involved in the fight are required to wear Reebok gear. Of all the critics who spoke out about how the deal affects their livelihoods, Duran’s input was apparently the least welcome. In an interview with Bloody Elbow, Duran said he was losing money. His vest was a billboard to supplement his income. He said he might have to segue more into boxing, where individual corners hire cutmen for an event, rather than the promotion itself.



It took only a minute to do away with 14 years of service. Duran, who for those 14 years, mastered the use of a single minute. And it’s a bad look for the UFC to sever ties with a professional like "Stitch" Duran just because he had the audacity to answer a question truthfully. Who knew that the Reebok kit came with a muzzle? Nobody told "Stitch." The Reebok motto of "Be More Human" is coming to mean "Be More Quiet."



The real problem here is that the UFC can be so petty. You don’t want to play limbo with Zuffa.



It’s true that a great many fighters have complained about the Reebok tier-system and how they are getting screwed out of sponsorship dollars (and that they feel like a common compound cult when wearing the new threads), all of which has to peeve the UFC. But a peripheral figure like Duran saying he is affected too is enough to fire him?



What is this? Nineteenth-century Prussia?



Duran’s complaints were not an indictment on the company. Duran’s complaints are a very real symptom of how the Reebok deal extends beyond the fighters. Like Burt Watson, "Stitch" didn’t come across as just some peon with no value to the operation. As far as anybody can tell -- and what many fighters attest to -- he just did his job. He’s a legend for being a low-maintenance human being who just steadily does what he is supposed to do. Your cauliflower ear is about to explode? "Stitch" can help.



Yet he became expendable for saying that cutmen should have been consulted/considered during the Reebok transition? The UFC didn’t even sugarcoat it by waiting a couple of weeks so that people could forget that Duran had even voiced his opinion. It fired him right away so that there could be no mistake as to why. He spoke out of line. Let that be (another) warning shot not to air your grievances publicly, I guess. But man...dude was only trying to point out he was taking a hit. Fourteen years should come with that sort of leeway. A conversation might have been in order, if his "outspokenness" was a problem. Instead, just the ax.



It's a shame, too. If you punch in "cutman" on Wikipedia, there’s a picture of "Stitch." He’s the cutman. He has the TapouT emblem on the back of his vest. TapouT, which was ran by the late Charles "Mask" Lewis -- also part of the traveling circus back in the day -- whom the UFC commemorates in the Octagon and has inducted into its Hall of Fame for his contributions in MMA.



Lewis’s brand would be forbidden today, and "Stitch" -- associative of this -- is no longer a part of the UFC’s traveling band of characters. Ironic? Yeah, well, hell…these things never make enough sense. In any case, happy trails, "Stitch!" And remember: Contributions such as yours can’t be measured by ordinary rulers.

★★★

Reebok fight kit: Dana White at the Reebok launch