Jacob ‘Stitch' Duran is an icon in boxing.
The famed cut man has given many fighters extra rounds and defined a generation for boxing fans.
Duran recently spoke to ProBox TV and recalled a moment that will stick with him for the rest of his life; the night Anthony Joshua knocked out Wladimir Klitschko.
“You want a Klitschko story, so I will tell you about the last time I saw him,” Duran told ProBox TV. “Our last fight when he fought Anthony Joshua at Wembley Stadium, I didn’t get to see him or Vitali until Friday, because my daughter Carla had gotten married that Wednesday. Thursday I flew to London, anyway, we are in the dressing room going over this and that.”
“Finally, at the end, I put my arm [on him] and told him, ‘Look, don’t worry about nothing. I am going to take care of you like you are my son’. I know the night before the guys can’t sleep.”
Joshua was a 2012 Olympic gold medalist from Britain. He was hailed as the next great heavyweight. Klitschko had lost to Tyson Fury, but had been the last dominant world champion in the division. It was the moment of truth for Joshua.
Duran further remembered details from fight night. It was close to the ring walks for the main event and the world was watching.
“Well, here I am come fight time, right before Michael Buffer does the announcements, all 90,000 crazy Brits, sounded like 150,000 of them. I am putting the final vaseline on, and he [Wladimir] says, ‘You can call me son’.”
“Man, that just kinda got to my heart, and [it was] one of the best fights he ever had.”
Weeks would pass, and Duran saw Klitschko back in Europe.
“The last time I ever saw him was in Germany about three months later,” Duran recalled. “I said, ‘Wladimir in that moment why?’ He said, ‘Stitch there are very few people I trust with my life and you are one of them’.”
“Not a bad story.”
