Ahead of Fedor Emelianenko's long-awaited return, 'Stitch' recounts his experiences with a legend

Fedor Emelianenko

Jacob “Stich” Duran remembers being called to a dressing room to wrap Fedor Emelianenko’s hands.

The promotion was PRIDE. The fight was Mark Hunt. Maybe. They all blend together after all these years.

Anyway, Duran is a social guy. He likes to get fighters talking. It makes them more comfortable and makes his job easier. It’s also a lot more entertaining than his usual monologue: open … close … open … close. Fighters have good stories.

But not Emelianenko. He didn’t say anything as Duran wrapped protective tape around his hands, and Duran didn’t say much either. Open. Close.

Truth be told, Duran was intimidated. The Klitschko brothers, Andre Ward, every UFC star ever born – Duran has worked with them all. But Emelianenko is different.

“There’s a little special thing about Fedor,” Duran told MMAjunkie.

So he went about his business. Before long, the wrap was done. Emelianenko examined it; he was returning to the ring after breaking his thumb in a previous bout. Obviously, it was important that didn’t happen again.

Emelianenko looked at the veteran cutman. In an hour or so, he would head to the ring to fight Mark Hunt or someone who would try to end his long, magnificent win streak. He would need that looping right hand of his.

“Super,” Emelianenko said.

Duran can’t remember Emelianenko’s opponent, but when he left the dressing room, he doesn’t think his feet touched the ground.

* * * *

On Sunday, Duran will fly to Japan to work a pair of events for the upstart Rizin Fighting Federation, headed by Nobuyuki Sakakibara, the man behind PRIDE. It’s been eight years since he promoted an event at Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan, which hosts the Dec. 29 and Dec. 31 cards.

Farther away still is the time when Emelianenko ruled the heavyweight division and Japanese MMA was a mainstream attraction. But Sakakibara is trying to change that, getting the old band back together again for another tour.

Duran was working “Bellator: Dynamite” this past September when someone tapped his back. It was Emelianenko (34-4), who said he would see him in Japan.

The Russian headlines the New Year’s Eve event, returning to the ring for the first time in three years. He faces Jaideep Singh (2-0), a former kickboxer with two MMA fights to his name.

Even by looser standards of Japanese matchmakers, the pairing is a mismatch. The promotion has gotten a lot of grief for threatening to drag Emelianenko’s legacy through the mud. Duran, though, thinks fans are missing the point.

“Fedor’s at the tail end of his career, number one, and what better way to have him fight in a mega-fight than to be at the Saitama with the old promoters that used to be with PRIDE,” he said.

Duran can’t ignore the “big discrepancy” between the fighters. He doesn’t know Singh’s body of work; he only sees the vast gap in experience. But in the end, he’s just wrapping hands and possibly treating cuts.

Over five or six fights, though, he’s seen Emelianenko through good times and bad. When Dan Henderson knocked him out in 2011, Duran said he had to explain three times what had happened. That was before the heavyweight went on something of a retirement tour and then hung up his gloves, presumably for good.

These days, Duran would prefer to see Emelianenko’s smile and get back at it.

“It’s not so much who he’s fighting; it’s more of an introduction to Fedor and more of a respect to Fedor,” he said. “That’s the way I look at it.”

* * * *

The last time Duran flew to Japan, it was 2012, and he was employed by the UFC. In the promotion’s first event in the country in 12 years, Benson Henderson defeated UFC lightweight champ Frankie Edgar in a controversial headliner.

Although Japanese fans are notoriously quiet, Duran could hear some yelling, “Stich-san!” as he worked.

Three years later, Duran is no longer a UFC fixture. He was fired (http://mmajunkie.com/2015/07/cutman-stitch-duran-explains-why-he-spoke-out-against-ufc-reebok-deal) after he spoke out on the promotion’s sponsorship policies under a long-term apparel deal with Reebok.

It’s been a year of significant change, yet he maintains striking out on his own has been a positive. And at least for the time being, it hasn’t slowed down his schedule. After Japan, he’s working for MMA promotions WSOF and Invicta FC and will work a boxing title fight between Marco Huck and Ola Afolabi on Fed. 27 in Germany.

Duran plans to parlay his celebrity into more seminar work, educating fighters and coaches on preventing and cleaning up the wounds of unarmed combat. In Japan, he said he helped implement standard safety procedures in PRIDE. Murilo “Ninja” Rua and Wanderlei Silva, then at the height of their fame, called him “Santana.”

His freedom came at the cost of steady work with the world’s biggest MMA promoter, but Duran is unapologetic about his decision to reveal lost pay as the result of Reebok.

“I’m a big believer in destiny and karma and speaking the truth,” Duran said. “What happened with the UFC has opened up these opportunities for me to do that.”

It’s way too early to say whether Rizin will offer any kind of replacement for what was lost, if that’s even the goal for Duran. But he said working overseas in Japanese events brings a key difference from their American counterparts.

“I go to Germany a lot, and I always say the Japanese and the Germans are the best in the business,” he said. “I’ve always gotta give the Japanese credit, because their word is like bond. When they say 12 o’clock, it’s 12 o’clock.”

* * * *

You can get two types of wraps when you sit before “Stich” Duran: the tapout wrap or the knockout wrap. The former has a little bit more give so fighters aren’t encumbered when they twist and torque limbs, while the latter offers more rigidity to protect the hands from the damage as they contact with the face and body.

Emelianenko always prefers the knockout wrap. That looping style lends itself to hand injuries, so the Russian needs all the help he can protecting his metacarpals. That right hand once shot ex-UFC champ and current title contender Andre Arlovski out of the sky. It once bounced Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira’s head off the canvas. Open, close.

Most fans expect Emelianenko to starch Singh one way or the other, though it’s just as likely he could take down the former kickboxer and submit him rather than risk accepting a damaging counter. There have been many upsets this year in MMA, so you can’t discount the possibility of a jarring turn. It should, however, be a showcase win for the fighter who brings that irresistibly cold aura to the ring.

Post-fight, Emelianenko is the same guy. After he beat Mark Hunt or someone, Duran and heavyweight Josh Barnett passed by his dressing room. The Russian and his entourage were raising glasses of vodka. He spotted the cutman and summoned him inside.

Another two glasses came out, and they celebrated. Emelianenko was all smiles.

For more on Rizin Fighting Federation 1, check out the MMA Rumors section of the site.

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