Jacob "Stitch" Duran (born December 29, 1951) is a professional cutman who works in

boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermine ...

and

mixed martial arts Mixed martial arts (MMA), sometimes referred to as cage fighting, no holds barred (NHB), and ultimate fighting, and originally referred to as Vale Tudo is a full-contact combat sport based on strike (attack), striking, grappling and ground f ...

fights.Manning, Fiona (2004)
Jacob “Stitch” Duran: A Boxer’s Dream
. ''www.eastsideboxing.com''. URL last accessed May 5, 2006. He is of Mexican descent and grew up in Planada, California.

Career

Background

Duran once owned and ran a boxing and kickboxing school in

Fairfield, California Fairfield is a city in and the county seat of Solano County, California, in the North Bay sub-region of the San Francisco Bay Area. It is generally considered the midpoint between the cities of San Francisco and Sacramento, approximately ...

. He was also one of the first International Kickboxing Federation promoters in California holding his first promotion back in October, 1992. Duran trained and produced several of the first IKF Amateur Champions such as Randy "Buzzman" Bussart, Mike "Mohamid" Duran, John "Psyco" Parker and Andy "The Sandman" Sanchez before furthering his career in professional boxing and mixed martial arts.

Boxing

Duran has worked on the Klitschko brothers and

Andre Ward Andre Michael Ward (born February 23, 1984) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 2004 to 2017. He retired with an undefeated record and held multiple world titles in two weight classes, including the unified WBA (Super ...

and more recently

Tyson Fury Tyson Luke Fury (born 12 August 1988) is an English professional boxer. He is a two-time world heavyweight champion, having held the WBC title since defeating Deontay Wilder in 2020, and '' The Ring'' magazine title from 2020 to August 2022; ...

. On November 23, 2014 Duran was in the corner of Chris Algieri when he took on

Manny Pacquiao Emmanuel Dapidran Pacquiao Sr. (; born December17, 1978) is a Filipino politician and former professional boxer. Nicknamed "PacMan", he is regarded as one of the greatest professional boxers of all time. He served as a Senator of the Phil ...

for the WBO welterweight title at Cotai Arena, Venetian Resort, Macao, Macao S.A.R., China. On May 29, 2015, Duran was in the corner of Chris Algieri once again when he took on Amir Khan for the WBC Silver Welterweight title at The Barclays Center, Brooklyn, New York. Duran has appeared as a cut-man in three films of the ''Rocky'' film series. In the sixth film, ''

Rocky Balboa Robert "Rocky" Balboa (also known by his ring name The Italian Stallion), is a fictional title character and the protagonist of the ''Rocky'' film series. The character was created by Sylvester Stallone, who has also portrayed him in all e ...

'', he plays the cut-man for Rocky's opponent, Mason "The Line" Dixon (played by real-life boxer

Antonio Tarver Antonio Deon Tarver (born November 21, 1968) is an American former professional boxer and boxing commentator. In boxing he competed from 1997 to 2015, and held multiple light heavyweight world championships, including the WBA (Unified), WBC, I ...

). In the seventh film, '' Creed'', he portrays himself in a supporting role. When Donnie Creed finally convinces

Rocky ''Rocky'' is a 1976 American sports drama film directed by John G. Avildsen and written by and starring Sylvester Stallone. It is the first installment in the ''Rocky'' franchise and stars Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers, and Burge ...

to train him, Rocky surprises Creed with a corner team, in which Duran is included. During the fight against "Pretty" Ricky Conlan, Creed has been blinded in one eye due to swelling. When Creed is asked by the ringside doctor how many fingers is he holding up, Duran taps the answer on Creed's neck, which lets the fight continue. He reprised his role in its sequel, '' Creed II''.

Mixed martial arts

In the

UFC The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is an American mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion company based in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is owned and operated by Zuffa, a wholly owned subsidiary of Endeavor Group Holdings. It is the largest MMA ...

, Duran was assigned to many of the top fights, working with fighters such as

Mirko Filipović Mirko Filipović (; born 10 September 1974), better known by his ring name Mirko Cro Cop, is a retired Croatian professional mixed martial artist, kickboxer and amateur boxer. He is mostly known for his time in Pride Fighting Championships. Cro C ...

Lyoto Machida (born 30 May 1978), is a Brazilian professional mixed martial artist and karateka, who currently competes in the Light heavyweight division. He formerly competed for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), where he was a former UFC Light H ...

Forrest Griffin Forrest Griffin (born July 1, 1979) is an American retired mixed martial artist and former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion. He was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame in 2013 and currently serves as the Vice President of Athlete Development at ...

and

Cain Velasquez Caín Ramirez Velasquez (born July 28, 1982) is an American professional wrestler and retired mixed martial artist, currently appearing for Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide (AAA). He is widely known for his time in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, ...

. He had a cameo role in the Kevin James MMA movie, '' Here Comes the Boom''. On July 21, 2015 Duran announced via

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

that he was let go from his job with the UFC due to comments he made about the organization's

Reebok Reebok International Limited () is an American fitness footwear and clothing manufacturer that is a part of Authentic Brands Group. It was established in England in 1958 as a companion company to J.W. Foster and Sons, a sporting goods company ...

sponsorship deal. Many UFC fighters publicly expressed their disappointment in Duran's firing, citing him as one of the best cutmen in the business. Duran began working with WSOF on August 1, 2015, starting with World Series of Fighting 22: Palhares vs. Shields. In March 2016 Duran signed a contract to join

Bellator MMA Bellator MMA (formerly Bellator Fighting Championships) is an American mixed martial arts promotion founded in 2008 and based in Santa Monica, California, owned and operated as a subsidiary of television and media conglomerate Paramount Glob ...

as a cutman.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Duran, Jacob Living people People from Merced, California Boxing people Mixed martial arts people Cutmen 1951 births American people of Mexican descent