Bellator heavyweight Justin Wren cornered Josh Copeland on Friday vs. World Series of Fighting heavyweight champion Blagoy Ivanov. Copeland lost a bloody, thrillling unanimous decision, and Wren, while making no excuses, pointedly questioned the competency of the cornerman.

First and foremost, this is no excuse for Josh’s performance, he fought his heart out, said Wren to Brent Brookhouse for MMAjunkie. But we were left hanging by, what I consider, the worst experience I’ve ever had with a cutman. … He told us, ‘I’m so experienced. I’ve been around the game for a long time. Sorry if I messed up the first round, but we fixed him up after the second round.’ But, for a world title fight against Ivanov, our cutman was paying attention to Ivanov instead of our corner.

Literally, me and Jake Ramos – head coach at Grudge with Trevor Wittman – we were yelling for the cutman; our other two two cornermen who aren’t in the cage are yelling for the cutman because Josh has a two-inch gash under his eye. From the right side to the left side. He’s getting stitches right now. We’re yelling for the cutman and he’s nowhere to be found. After the end of the first round, we’re walking out to start the second round and he starts walking up to our corner after the first round is over. We asked where he was and he said, ‘I was paying attention to Ivanov.’ Do your job. This is a world title fight.

Copeland sustained a large cut in the first, and with no vaseline and other responses, it got worse in Round 2. The fighter needed nine stitches after the fight.

The cut got twice as bad after the first round because he got no attention, said Wren. It’s a world title fight. He says, ‘I made up for it didn’t I after the second round?’ No. It’s a world title fight. Don’t leave us hanging. It could have caused a stoppage. Ivanov’s almost did. It makes zero attention at this level in a world title fight. Why isn’t a cutman attending to his fighter in his corner?