Stitch’s greatest thrill wrapping hands?
Stitch Duran: “I’ve won a lot of fights for a lot of fighters, and I’ve won a lot of money for a lot of fighters by stopping their cuts and just keeping them in the game.”
Jonathan Shrager: You work in prolific fights in both the UFC and within boxing; would you say your passion for both sports is equal?
Stitch Duran: Mixed Martial Arts is a cut-man’s dream. I work with so many fighters at the high level, and I’m so busy in one night. If they give me 5 guys’ hands to wrap, I’ll do 8 or 9 of them because all of these guys want me to wrap their hands, but I can’t do them all. I’ve won a lot of fights for a lot of fighters, and I’ve won a lot of money for a lot of fighters by stopping their cuts and just keeping them in the game.
But I love both MMA and boxing; I like working with the Klitschko brothers, Andre Ward, and they’ve just called me to go and wrap Amir Khan’s hands to see if he’d like my style of wrapping, and my style of working cuts.
Jonathan Shrager😕Fantastic. You mention a lot of combat sports luminaries there. Is there any fighter who’s particularly fastidious when it comes to having their hands wrapped?
Stitch Duran: One of my greatest thrills was wrapping Fedor Emelianenko; he was “The Emperor.” When I wrapped his hands, he didn’t say very much, but when I asked him how they felt, he said “super.” It was a Rocky Balboa type of story.