Jacob 'Stitch' Duran explains why he stopped Nate Diaz fight on stool
Jacob 'Stitch' Duran explains why he stopped Nate Diaz's fight with Mike Perry at Rousey vs. Carano.
Video Transcript
Quite a show, Stitch.
What did you think of being part of Netflix MMA and, and luckily only a, a one-hour flight away from your home in Las Vegas?
it was, it was phenomenal, man.
Talk about high energy and, you know, Goes and I were talking about, I ran into Burt Watson, haven't seen him in a long time, and, you know, Anderson Silva and Rampage and Kenny Florian and so many, so many guys that, that I work with that they were just a high energy level fight the, the, the whole night.
I was so tired the next m- day, man, 'cause of the excitement and the adrenaline and, and all that, but, it was worth it, 100%.
Now you were a c- cornerman, or cutman, excuse me, part of the corner of Nate Diaz.
Did you a- also work with any other fighters or were you there exclusively for Nate?
Yeah.
Well, you know, Chris Avila, but he was part of the, the, the Nate camp.
He, the f- he had the first fight.
But when- Mm-hmm Zach Rosenfield, the, the agent called me, you know, he says, "Yeah."
I said, "Well," y- and he asked me, "Are you gonna be working with other ones?"
I said, "Nah, I'm only here for you," you know?
And, so, you know, I was there for Nate only.
Yeah.
And what were your impressions of how MVP runs things?
super job, man.
They did a real, real good job, you know, and they give back to so many, and they did everything right for, you know, Jake Paul doing his first MMA show.
it was pretty spectacular, man, just, you know, the press conferences and the weigh-ins and they're pretty high energy, man.
So I, I expect him to do quite well.
Let's get to the fight itself.
things didn't go the way y'all wanted.
Mike Perry was the winner that night, and of course in between rounds two and three, that's when the fight was stopped.
And we wanted to ask you, can you tell us exactly what happened, in between rounds and two and three?
I mean, obviously Nate came to the corner very cut up, very bloody, and you guys tended to him.
It's not like it got shut down right as that started.
I d- is this a decision that came across, you know, as you were tending to him or, you know, w- whose call was it?
It said corner stoppage.
It was the corner.
But you were the one that seemed very vocal about it.
Yeah, yeah.
So who actually talked about it and who came to that decision?
I did.
You know, I, I told Nate, you know, one, he ended up with 15 staples.
Wow.
20 stitches altogether, right?
So he, he was beat up.
Mike Perry was, he was too strong for him.
You know, a- as I always look at it as, as a judge, Goes and, and, and George, and at that point he was getting his ass whooped.
He, Mike was just too strong, too aggressive, and he was hurting him.
And then, and then Nate broke his finger, you know, kinda like right about here and he said, "Man, I, I couldn't do nothing."
And but the cuts were so big 'cause this one here, it kept pulsating and it kept going, and then his nose kept bleeding, you know, the sign of maybe a broken nose and all that.
But, he was just, I told, I told Goes, I mean, I told Nate, I said, "Nate, I'm gonna have the doctor stop the fight, man.
It's, it's, you know, it's too much blood and, and you keep bleeding," you know?
And, I know the referee, "Come on, let's go."
I said, "No, no, no, he's not going out."
And then Nate thanked me.
He says, "Thanks, Stitch," you know?
I said, "Of course, man."
I was there to take care of him, so that was a proper move.
You know, you don't wanna A- and the thing about it, he said he couldn't see, and that's always- the number one, so yeah.
It wasn't a hard decision to make.
You know, it's funny because there's bloodthirsty fans that wanna see the fight, right?
So obviously disappointment, you could hear it in the arena, and then of course at home.
But I think ev- once everyone kinda calms down a bit and sees and s- gets the information, then they're able to say, "Oh, okay," you know?
In the end, the corner did the right move for its fighter.
how about you at that time?
I guess you already answered my question.
Nate was, Nat- Nate said, you know, he thanked you for stopping it right then and there, but was there any pushback by any of the others in the corner or, or anything like that immediately as it, when it happened?
Not at all.
Not at all.
You know, they kinda trusted my judgment and, you know, they got three or four guys that were I had to go get down, get some more towels because he, he was so bloody, but guys were wiping his head, wiping his back, cleaning up his legs and all that.
he had blood everywhere, you know?
So it wasn't that hard of a decision to make and, you know, you gotta, my job is to protect the fighter and, that's exactly what I did with Nate.
And, you know, at the end when we're saying goodbye, man, he gives me a hug and you know, "I love you," you know?
So he knows.
His dad was there and, you know, he thanked me.
So yeah, of course, I did the right thing.
I, no question about it.
Stitch, I also want you to know that even though all that happened, you got a ton of praise, so did the whole corner, but specifically you.
Yeah.
you know, I know Richard Perez was there in that corner as well, for looking out for your fighter.
Yeah.
Not that you need it or anything like that, but it's still at the same time I think it's a great thing to, from the sportsman side, from the human side, you know, the, that like I say, a lot of notable people in MMA also thought it was a brilliant call.
Yeah, you know, it's cool.
I got a, a message from Marco Antonio Barrera from Guadalajara, and he thanked me.
He says, "Great job."
But, you know, I got a lot of compliments from, you know, guys within the industry, you know, and they understand.
Yeah.
You know, my only job is to, you know, give that guy that one more round, and if he can't go one more round, just take care of him.
Yeah.
And, you know, so I'm glad that I was there for Nate.
