Veteran cutman 'Stitch' Duran recounts triage of Jon Jones' 'hitchhiking' toe

Jacob “Stitch” Duran was already walking down the stairs leading out of the octagon and planned to catch a bus to UFC 159's host hotel when he heard UFC commentator Joe Rogan say Jon Jones‘ toe was broken.

“So I put everything on hold,” Duran on Monday told MMAjunkie.com Radio (www.mmajunkie.com/radio).

Moments earlier, Duran walked into the cage and discovered he had little work to do on the light-heavyweight champion – only brush some sweat from his brow after he pounded Chael Sonnen for a first-round TKO this past Saturday in the pay-per-view event’s headliner.

Even earlier in the night, Duran had wrapped the hands of Jones, who joked he was going to change his nickname from “Bones” to its Spanish equivalent, “Huesos.” (Duran is of Hispanic descent and is fluent in Spanish.)

Duran, nicknamed “Stitch,” didn’t flinch when he saw Jones had broken his left toe, as it turned out in the midst of his assault.

Jones, meanwhile, looked like he was going to faint.

“A fan said it best: It looked like he was hitchhiking,” Duran said.

Then the veteran cutman sprung into action, straightening and wrapping Jones’ toe with a bandage he called “Qwick-aid,” culled from the Duran’s own Stitch Premium product line, which he said has a special type of cotton that is ideal for serious wounds.

“I said, ‘Jon, are you in any pain? Are you OK?’ He said, ‘Yeah, I’m OK,’” said Duran, who added that he loosened the wrap slightly when he felt Jones’ leg jerk in pain.

As MMAjunkie.com medical consultant Johnny Benjamin noted earlier, infection was a serious danger for Jones, who was fitted with a makeshift boot and briefly attended the event’s post-event press conference at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., before being taken to an area hospital.

“It’s like a triage when you’re in the battlefields, you’ve got to get this warrior prepped up so they can take him to the hospital,” Duran said. “I was in the right place at the right time.

“I was talking to doctors in Las Vegas, and they were saying [the bandage has] a matrix that really coagulates the blood, but in doing that, not only does it coagulate the blood, it draws the impurities out.”

Jones has yet to reveal the status of his injury and how long it will keep him out of action. His trainer, Greg Jackson, said he is waiting for an update.

According to UFC President Dana White, the champ could sit on the sidelines while a No. 1 contender match materializes, but he cautioned that it’s too early to tell.

Jones tweeted on Sunday, “Screw my big toe, I’m on a mission. No time to slow down now,” after saying a planned post-fight trip to Jamaica was off.  Today, he tweeted a picture of what looked like a corporate office for Coca-Cola, writing, “Big things ahead.”

The champ already has inked a high-profile deal with Nike, who created the “Bones Jones” line he wore to the octagon this past Saturday. Jones (18-1 MMA, 12-1 UFC) has defended his title five times, tying a record set by UFC Hall of Famer Tito Ortiz.

For complete coverage of UFC 159, stay tuned to the UFC Events section of the site.

MMAjunkie.com Radio broadcasts Monday-Friday at noon ET (9 a.m. PT) live from Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino’s Race & Sports Book. The show is hosted by “Gorgeous” George Garcia, MMAjunkie.com lead staff reporter John Morgan and producer Brian “Goze” Garcia. For more information or to download past episodes, go to www.mmajunkie.com/radio.