Legendary cutman Jacob ‘Stitch’ Duran claims UFC fighters are ‘getting screwed’ by boss Dana White and not paid a far wage.
Renowned for his work in the worlds of both MMA and boxing, Duran has helped patch up Tyson Fury, Jake Paul, KSI and even Hollywood star Michael B Jordan during his stint in Hollywood.
The iconic cutman left the UFC in the summer of 2015 in somewhat acrimonious circumstances after speaking out against inequalities surrounding fighter pay.
In 2014, the UFC signed an exclusive six-year deal with Reebok, with the promise of $70million (£51m) set to be shared among the fighters.
Yet while the deal offered fighters some level of compensation, it offered no such thing for cutmen, who were also subject to the same restrictions of not being able to carry sponsors’ logos.
With a world heavyweight title fight between Francis Ngannou and Jon Jones reportedly collapsing due to a lack of funds made available to ‘Bones’, it appears history may be repeating itself.
The aforementioned younger Paul brother has also publicly slated the promotion's president, White, and demanded he pay fighters what they are worth.
And Duran told MyBettingSites he believes the organisation must do better.
He said: "The UFC called us together, met with us and bought us lunch and they told us that because of the Reebok deal you couldn't use any more sponsors. I was making more money from sponsors than what the UFC was paying me.
"When they took the sponsors away, I tried to negotiate for at least an increase in pay and I was told there's no money in the kitty. I couldn't stay with them anyway and that was when I spoke out.
"The people knew that we got paid more to work a boxing show than a whole event with the UFC. As a matter of fact, one of Dana's right hand people mentioned, 'We know we don't pay you guys enough.'
“And none of that has changed. It's quite disappointing. These guys need to get paid more.
"The [UFC] fighters don't get paid what they're worth, not at all. They're getting screwed. And that's one good thing about these YouTubers, Ben Askren got paid $500,000 for that Paul fight.
"I remember Dana when we first started saying, 'As we make money, you make money.' But it seems like they are making the money but not passing on the benefits created by the UFC.
"They'd have to pay me a lot of money [if I were to return]," he added. "It depends. I know I would bring a lot of value back.
"How many years has it been, six? People still stop me for interviews. It kind of makes me the face of the rebellion, the guy who spoke up.
"A couple of months ago I was doing one of the Top Rank shows in the bubble at the MGM and Luiz Dórea - who used to train Anderson Silva - he comes up to me and he says: 'Stitch, we the coaches, the fighters we respect you a lot because you spoke up when we couldn't.'
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Even Wesley Snipes comes up to me and says: 'Hey man, the UFC did you wrong.' I'm glad I spoke up for unfair practices.
"I ran into one of the UFC cutmen the other day and he was telling me they were still getting paid peanuts. and to me that's a shame.
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"It's quite disappointing and I could almost guarantee you the ring girls get paid more than the cutmen and the cutmen are the most important people in the fights, especially in MMA.
"So I'm glad I left and things would have to change if I came back."
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