Det är inte bara bra fighters som krävs för att UFC:s galor ska fortsätta gå av stapeln i snabb takt, det behövs även bra personal. En som arbetat länge i organisationen är ”cutman” Jacob ”Stitch” Duran, som började jobba för UFC år 2001.
Här kan ni läsa hur en dag på jobbet ser ut för honom, via ”AboveandBeyondMMA.com”:
(The fighters) already have their dressing rooms assigned, so once they get off the bus and they’re walking into the arena, Burt Watson and his coordinators will direct each fighter to the proper dressing room. Once they put their stuff away, they go into the Octagon and they roll around and get the feel of the mat and all that. Fifteen minutes later, they come back into their dressing room and we start wrapping hands.
I feel like the guy in the old gladiator days who would go into the dungeon and start putting the armour on these gladiators before they went out into the coliseum and fought for their life.
That’s one of my things — the psychology of keeping these guys relaxed is by talking to them and really kind of shooting the shit with them. I had one guy who literally just cried like a baby. I stopped, I let him cry — I let him vent. Because I know. Once he finished crying, I looked at him and told him, ‘Don’t worry about it — I’ll take care of you.’ He ended up winning that fight.
Cain Velasquez is a very quiet, serious guy. He doesn’t say too much, but one of my goals is to make him smile and give me a hug after I finish wrapping his hands. BJ Penn would always give me a kiss on the cheek and tell me he loves me. And I would hear that from so many different other fighters. It’s a pretty awesome feeling.
The thing I like to do and the reason I’ll always do the first fights is to meet with the doctors and let them know this is what we do and we’re pretty good at what we do. We understand that the doctor’s decision is always the final one. We’re here to work together with them.
But basically I’m preparing for a fighter to get cut, a fighter to get swollen or a fighter to get knocked out … S— could happen — and it happens — 10 seconds before the bell rings where a fighter gets cut, so you have to be prepared to go in there instantaneously.
We have 50 seconds or less and you’ve got to take advantage of every second available to us. I have everything ready… whatever the situation is, once the bell rings, if they need me to go in there, I’m in there.
People ask me what the main essential tool that you need. And I think confidence and calmness are the two that we need.
Jacob jobbar inte längre på hela matchkortet, han har ansvar för de första och sista tre matcherna under galan. Resten sköts av Durans fyra arbetskamrater.
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