Issue 165

March 2018

What it takes to keep a fighter in the fight.

I started training in judo and wrestled in high school, then joined the army and kicked around there for about six years.

When I got out, I just started taking in everything I could, from Aikido to Kung Fu to golden gloves boxing. Everything I could get my hands on, I wanted. I wanted any piece of information. Nothing was useless.

When I joined the army, they made me a combat medic. I found that blood and injuries didn’t bother me. When I was training at my gym in St. Louis, I realised I could put the two together. I can use one skill set to help the other skill set. Not many people get that opportunity.

A lot of people who want to get into this aren’t prepared for it, or they don’t want to do it for the right reasons. They think that they are going to get on TV right away. There was almost a decade where I was in Hooters, parking lots or old skating rinks doing little stuff. That’s where you really learn it. You start in the gym and you are with your

fighters that you are training with. It’s amazing how many cutmen contact me who don’t have a gym or have never trained. Some pride themselves on that fact, which I find odd. So, you have no idea what you’re doing?

You start with the fighters in the gym and you work your skillset there. Then you move to the regional shows. That’s where the composure comes. Then, when you have the skill and composure, you can move up to shows where there are tens of millions of people watching you do it. You try not to think about that in the back of your mind when it’s the main event, and Gegard Mousasi comes back to the corner looking like he did in the Alexander Shlemenko fight.

It was the first minute, and you really can’t react. If you walk up to a fighter with a look on your face the fighter might think it’s worse than it is. You don’t want to give them that state of mind. A lot of times you will see a mouse above or below or to the side but he had an all-encompassing mouse. That’s also where experience comes into play. Normally you wouldn’t want to use as much pressure as I used on him because it would just cause more damage. That was the only way to get it done. Knowing when to break the rules is as important as knowing them. 

I’m most proud of my work on the Michael Chandler vs. Eddie Alvarez fights. I worked both of those fights with Dean Lassiter, and they were wars. There were multiple injuries on both sides. They kept going. In the Mousasi fight, I guess I did a good job because the bout kept going, but it didn’t challenge me as much as Alvarez vs. Chandler.

I don’t get punched in the face, so it was easy for me. They are the ones that do all the work and I’m glad I can help in whatever way I can. If people notice you, you’re in the wrong. You should be in the background – at least, that’s the way I look at it. It shouldn’t be about getting on TV. If you can give one more round and save a guy half his purse, or keep him from getting cut, that’s the reward.

A cutman’s tricks of the trade shouldn’t be kept secret. A lot of people that are that way. If a coach comes wants to video tape me wrapping hands or asks a question about what I did, they are going to take that back to a regional show and they use that. By giving information, I help everyone down the line, but I meet people all the time who treat it like some secret society.