MMA Junkie reports that UFC cutman Jacob “Stitch” Duran was let go by the company after revealing that the cutmen were not part of the Reebok sponsorship deal and that he lost all revenue from his sponsors. Duran detailed this in an interview with Bloody Elbow and despite putting his contractor in a positive light, he was let go.
Duran first revealed the information in a tweet responding to someone asking about whether cutmen were a part of Reebok sponsorship.
@InMyMMAOpinion Brother, I lost everything regarding sponsors from pay to a nice vest! Now I have no fees and a generic vest.
— Jacob Stitch Duran (@StitchDuran) July 13, 2015
He then gave an interview with John Nash of Bloody Elbow in which he clarified the situation. He indicated that he was an independent contractor for the UFC although it was “highly recommended” not to work for another MMA promotion stating it was “an unwritten rule.” He told Nash that cutmen were told that they were “given sufficient warning” that they were not a part of the Reebok deal. In support of the UFC, he stated he didn’t think “they [UFC] did this out of malice.” Duran claimed that he thought that the cutmen were “doing too good of [a] job where they just maybe forgot about us.”
An interesting sidenote from the interview was that Duran stated that in boxing, boxers pay cutmen directly whereas MMA promotions pay its cutmen.
Duran was let go shortly after the interview as he indicated via twitter. MMA Junkie confirmed with an unnamed source.
Payout Perspective:
The situation smells of a lawsuit waiting to happen…perhaps. Duran talks about his work status and is immediately let go by the company. Unless there was something in Duran’s contract that prevented him from speaking about sponsors, the Reebok deal or his pay his dismissal is very suspect. Obviously, the UFC can rely on the fact that Duran’s contract can be terminated at any time.
The other part of the situation that puts the UFC in a bad light is the brazen way this looks as how it seeks to control its message. The Reebok deal has caught major scrutiny and criticism. And despite efforts by the UFC to use its fighters to promote the deal, many fight fans see the dismissal of Duran (and Burt Watson although that situation was different) as the UFC disregarding the people that helped get it to where it is today. Duran’s dismissal appears to be a sign to others within the organization that they should remain in line with the company or else.
When a company is up for sale, the first thing you have to do is get your house in order – establish synergies (Fox deal), solidify marketing partnerships (Reebok deal) and build a superior product (Connor/Rhonda/Werdum). Disgruntled employees do not make for good PR and will not help with the ongoing negotiations.
Zuffa, as owners of the UFC, can chose to do as they wish with respect to sponsorship. I’m not defending them, but for Duran to speak up now, when the new sponsorship deal is feeling growing pains, poor sales and bad press, simply is feeding fuel to the fire. If he was not satisfied with the deal, of which he has had a year to adjust to, well he does have other options. Schaub, take note.
With that said, there does seem to be a movement from within the organization that is boiling over. Many of the fighters do not appear to be happy with recent changes. If your employees are not happy, in the end the product will suffer. This will not likely end well for the organization as whole. If this was a publicly traded company, one would wonder if DW would still be president.
In summary,
1. Zuffa can do as it pleases, they can hire and fire, and the lawsuit will not go anywhere
2. Duran had ample warning of the changes coming, to speak up now hurts the organization, so even if I agree with him, it will be looked upon poorly if a lawsuit goes forward
3. Unhappy employees = poor morale. Could be detrimental to the organization and will affect the bottom line
no one will buy or consider buying the ufc until the anti trust suit is settled.
hahhahaha more bad news for the ufc hahahahahah
Let the monopoly continue, UFC is only setting itself up for failure, no clothing companies will support MMA now since there is no chance to be a sponsor anymore and be represented by the fighters
It doesn’t sound like Duran was out there complaining to anyone who would listen. He was asked if he was getting any money, and responded in a way that it seems to me is honest rather than not insulting to the UFC and then further clarified his comments in an interview.
One of the things that most bothers me about the UFC is how think skinned they are. They simply can’t take any criticism. We’ve seen this same reaction to fighters, trainers and managers, journalists and now we can add cut-men to the list. It’s just a silly response by the UFC. There’s a professional and constructive way to handle this, but what the UFC chose to do is childish. Ultimately it’s their choice and I doubt Duran has any legal standing to complain, but still, it’s a dumb way to do things.
“no one will buy or consider buying the ufc until the anti trust suit is settled”
That’s asinine. No one cares about the suit. It’s an obvious negotiating tactic by the members of a casino union and has nothing to do with the UFC.
Lawsuits are a standard part of running day to day business for most corporations. Part of the strategy to get the lawsuit moved to Nevada is to simply contain it within a State that is favorable towards the UFC contracts and business dealings. This would never impact the sale of the organization.
This was a major mistake. Terrible decision for the ufc to release him for some mildly critical comments. A foolish pr nightmare. No one will support them on this decision and it makes them look terrible with an ongoing anti-trust lawsuit.
Fight Fan,
The existence of Bellator, and to a lesser extent, other organizations, negate the monopoly theory. You might argue that Zuffa runs the show in Nevada, which would be reaching, however, there is no strong arming going on in the industry to prevent other organizations from being successful. Can you really blame the UFC for buying Pride, Strikeforce, etc. when those companies ran business poorly and sold out of duress?
Fighters have options to fight in an array of organizations, as Duran can get work outside of the UFC within a day if he so chooses. Unless under contract, these guys and girls can go to the competition and help build those brands. They don’t because there obviously is more money and job security at UFC for the moment. Things will likely change. Tell me a company where 100% of employees are happy and I’ll send my resume.
Diego,
You may be right about the UFC, but you have to look at their track record. The top brasses arrogance has so far got them where they are today. It’s unlikely they will change their attitude just because one of the best cut person in the business talks bad about their major sponsor.
Let’s say they for argument sake they approached him and ask him to keep mum on the issue, and he agreed, I’m sure he would still be gainfully employed. It appears, based on what Duran has stated, that they did have a heated discussion during the call which probably was enough for the UFC to say goodbye.
Until we hear the whole story, we just don’t know.
A major anti trust lawsuit! are you out of your mind? No one will buy unless its cleared up. Business 101. No one will buy a business not knowing if they will have to pay a fortune out that could close down the company, You fuck tool! hahaha
Zuffa will go down with the ship all alone!
Sal, get yourself some meds.
UFC is doomed as a long term going concern.
Primacy: open ended liability for brain injuries. All of the reactionary changes to policy such as changing scoring criteria from “head trauma and total destruction!!!!” to the more gentile sounding “effective striking” will be used against them. Very effectively.
All of the thousands of men and women who’ve fought as “independent contractors” for a well organized concern will easily be certified as a class and be awarded multiple of billions of dollars at some point in the future.
This is a guarantee and they know it.
When did it become so bad in America to run your business like you want as long as you play within the legal system. The market will sort your decisions out for better or worse. We all know how the UFC is run and so did Duran. He spoke poorly about his employers business practices and they let him go. If he is such a legend and necessity in his field he will be just fine in another organization plus all the independent boxing work he can pick up. Let’s wish him the best.
No one except the hard cores pay attention to these things.
I love my MMA and my Boxing. I watch every single televised event. I hope both flourish and so should all of you because what ever side of the fight debate you are on I’m sure you would prefer watching combat sports over such tv gems like The Kardashians, Dancing with the non stars, Married at first sight, Housewives of nonesenseville………
Rich, I highly doubt they will lose any suit based on any traumatic brain injury related issues. There has yet to be one case of any past UFC fighters to have been reported with any dementia diagnosis directly from fighting in the UFC. MMA doesn’t involve the amount of brain punishment sports like football and boxing do because of the grappling/submission game, plus once a fighter is ko’d, the fight is halted which is not what happens in boxing.
They will settle though probably with the current suit against them for their rigid contracts-notably the likeness issue and hopefully the champion’s clause. There should be some changes made.
UFC veteran Big Daddy Goodridge talks about his dementia
https://youtu.be/H51FUvMOpVc
Hahahaha. The same Gary Goodridge who had 38 career kickboxing matches and only 7 of his mma bouts came in the UFC.
Nice try idiot.
Duran exposed another cheapie side of the ufc….hahahahaha
http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2015/7/22/9016975/report-ufc-globo-deal-tv-media-2016-mma-news. UFC is crumbling
http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2015/7/22/9017347/ufc-on-fox-dillashaw-vs-barao-2-ratings-ticket-sales
http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2015/7/22/9016827/reebok-responds-to-angry-ufc-fans-about-stitch-firing-mma-news. 3 bad news in a day hahahahahahaha….reebok got a very cheap deal from the ufc….with the negative things was it worth it?
‘Stitch’ was not even inflammatory in his comments, he didn’t directly call out the UFC or put them on the spot, he just spoke about his situation in losing a good deal of money which is true and can be confirmed, he didn’t state anything false or went out it in a way that was damaging to the UFC… plenty of other people have said 10 times as worse of this Reebok deal, so it is surprising to see the UFC overly react in this manner.
Wladimir Klitschko takes care of him very well and I am sure he will find plenty of work in the Boxing world and outside of the UFC Bubble, so I wouldn’t worry too much about him financially, it’s still a disgrace the way he was ‘let go’ but that is the way the UFC rolls–they burn bridges and have no loyalty to the people that started with them and helped them along the way.
Dana showing what a classless loser he and the ufc really are!!!! Talk about panic bahahhahaha
http://mmajunkie.com/2015/07/ufc-president-dana-whites-overnight-qa-with-weirdos-idiots-goofballs-and-morons
If Tops bothered to read the Globo deal article- it was just about TUF Brazil. Does anyone believe they are going to end their contract before the Aldo-McGregor fight? No chance.
Ha aldo mcgregor was already canceled once good chance it won’t happen. Aldo to retire bahahhaha
“Aldo to retire bahahhaha”
salda – Would you like to make a bet on that? I’m happy to take the other side. You’d only have to change your name to “saldadouche” when you lose.
“A major anti trust lawsuit! are you out of your mind? No one will buy unless its cleared up. Business 101. No one will buy a business not knowing if they will have to pay a fortune out that could close down the company, You fuck tool! hahaha”
That must be why everyone dumped Microsoft stock when they faced an anti-trust suit. Oh wait, that didn’t happen. You’re a genius salda. A real investment guru. Do you live in Omaha by any chance?
Haha. Sal is such an idiot.