Respected cutman Jacob ‘Stitch’ Duran discusses that devastating moment when a fighter is KO’d for the first time.

The crowd was buzzing with excitement as I pressed my KO swell against Fedor Emelianenko’s right cheek.

It was swollen badly because minutes earlier Fedor and Dan Henderson put on an exciting back-and-forth round that ended when a seemingly hurt Hendo changed from prey to predator and landed a brutal punch to stop ‘The Last Emperor.’ 

The legend looked confused, like so many others I’ve worked with after a knockout. The doctor checked his eye and Fedor turned to me.

“What happened?” he asked. These are the words I’ve heard many times before, and I hate answering them. “You got knocked out.”

Just like that, the once-unbeatable Fedor had dropped his third straight fight. 

He, of course, was upset, but accepted my words and assistance and kept his composure. I checked on him later at the hotel.

He said he was fine and thanked me with a hug then gave me a couple of T-shirts. Fedor has that special energy, win or lose, but losing is still hard when you put so much into one single moment – especially when it is your first time being KO’d.

Fedor’s knockout loss came on the heels of a couple of other memorable KOs. Just a month earlier I – along with so many others – was shocked when Cheick Kongo turned it around on Pat Barry and stopped him in dramatic come-from-behind fashion.

Pat was KO’d with his eyes wide open and he didn’t know what was going on. It was his first time being knocked out and he handled it pretty well.

A few weeks earlier I was working with MMA veteran Yves Edwards. Yves is such a great guy, and after almost 60 fights he understands the game. He’d won two in a row heading into UFC 131.

Unfortunately for Yves, he was on the wrong end of a brutal KO at the hands of Sam Stout. He too was left sprawled out on the canvas, eyes wide open. 

At the hotel after the event, I talked with Yves. He said he was okay, but he was pretty bummed out. He didn’t remember what happened and I could tell that even though he is experienced, he was having a tough time reconciling with the loss. 

“Let me explain it to you this way,” I said. “This is a game where someone is going to win and someone is going to lose.

It’s a game of numbers, and unfortunately your number came up.

It could have happened to him. How many times have you won by knockout and have been on the other side of the road? This is a game where things like this are going to happen.”

I wanted Yves to understand that it’s okay to lose when you give it your best shot. It’s still hard to take, but all you can do is give your best. When you’re dealing with split seconds and two guys who are equally talented, it happens that somebody is going to get cracked and somebody is going to go down. It’s the nature of the game. 

Numbers are everything. They make the world go around. And I said to Yves: “God gave you this number, it isn’t the one you wanted, but He gave it to you. Now what are you going to do with it? You’re still a tough warrior, and you ought to be proud of that.”

Yves gave me a hug and said: “Thanks, you’ve made me feel so much better.”

I was glad I could help, and I meant what I said. One of the amazing aspects of MMA is that somebody is going to win and somebody is going to lose and it can happen in an instant. The fighters inherently know this, but it’s another thing when they have to deal with it.

The response after a loss can make or break a fighter. The words I said to Yves – “What are you going to do with it?” – when talking to him about his loss, really carry a lot of weight. Weeks, months, even years have been spent in an effort to reach a goal, and then when a fighter comes up just short, it’s brutally tough. 

We see it all the time in MMA and it makes us instinctively ask what’s next?

Guys like Fedor and Pat Barry, who were KO’d for their first time ever, or Yves Edwards, who is a veteran dealing with another difficult loss, have to grapple with this question. They have to determine for themselves what will come after a loss. 

If I can, I will be there to help them afterward, and others will be there for them too. But only they can deal with the thoughts a KO loss can produce. For sure, those thoughts aren’t easy, but they are part of the game.