FiveKnuckles.com: It's hard not to like a person who puts it all on the line in an honest fashion, like most fighters do. Now, many fighters have a hard time gaining sponsorships, but that doesn't seem to be a problem for you. Could you see all of this happening to a cut man?

Stitch Duran: (Laughs) I didn't see any of this coming and it's quite an honor to be able to get sponsors. With everything that's come about in my life through the fight business and all of the opportunities I've had, I've never asked for one job and I was never looking for these results. It all just happened to me. You know what "shit happens" (laughs). I'm here to tell you first hand that shit does actually happen. I thank God I was at the right place at the right time.

When I first started in the UFC, TapouT was getting bigger and bigger. It was "Mask" [Charles Lewis] that created the corner man jackets that we have out right now. Back then, they were paying me on a per event basis to rock the jacket so it wasn't a full blown sponsorship. When One More Round was first started, they got behind Matt Hughes and he was the one that got me the connection by telling Mark Zacher that if anybody gives the fighters one more round, it's "Stitch." They ended up calling me and when I negotiated with Mark, I told them that I got three other guys (UFC cut men Don House, Leon "Cutman" Tabbs, and Rudy Hernandez) with me that deserve some billing and we all got sponsored. After that, Xyience came forward and wanted me to be a part of their campaign. In doing so, I negotiated for my other three cut men and we all came away again. By now, everybody knows One More Round went under, but when that happened, it allowed the door to open for TapouT to come back in. To me that was a blessing in disguise because working with "Punk Ass" and "Skrape" along with Mark Kreiner and the others has been great.

This whole ride has been absolutely amazing. I mean how many guys do you know that have been on a 200 foot wall outside the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles leading up to UFC 104? How many cut men do you know that have a signature series designed after them? How many other cut men have a personal line of corner man jackets for sale? These sponsorships are something I need to support myself and they allow me to do what I do... and it's not like it doesn't make sense. I'm on television just about every other week and the reason you get a sponsorship is to sell products. I do that through my exposure and representing my company the right way. Both Tapout and Xyience are happy to have me...