Cutmen embrace adjustment to Top Rank bubble at MGM Grand

It’s become boxing’s version of “The Shawshank Redemption,” the 1994 film about a friendship cultivated in prison.

At least that’s how legendary cutman Jacob “Stitch” Duran jokingly describes the tenor of Top Rank’s bubble inside the MGM Grand, where he’s lived and worked the last three weeks alongside fellow veteran cutman Mike Bazzel during the sport’s return amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“Literally, you’re in solitary confinement,” Duran, 69, said. “You kind of figure out ways to do things, but for the most part, I’m just laying in my bed doing nothing.”

That is, until fight night. Then it’s business as usual.

Duran and Bazzel are embedded inside the MGM Grand as Top Rank’s staff cutmen, and tend to a majority of the fighters on the promotion’s biweekly fight cards on ESPN. The two are confined mostly to their hotel rooms within Top Rank’s bubble, making for a mundane and boring lifestyle as the city reopens around them.

But the opportunity is both historic and rewarding for Duran and Bazzel, who went months without work while the sport was at a standstill and have since forged a friendship working across from each other.

“I don’t mind that I’m sequestered,” said Bazzel, 57. “I don’t mind that I’m in here on the weekends and that I’m not doing anything but in my room. I’m blessed for the opportunity. And I’m blessed to be paid. For most of us in boxing now, it’s really hard times.”

Coming aboard

Top Rank chief operating officer Brad Jacobs developed a plan in accordance with the Nevada Athletic Commission for the promotion’s return during the pandemic and sought to limit the number of people within its bubble.

Fighters, who normally have two trainers plus a cutman in their corner, are allowed no more than two people in their corner during the pandemic, so Jacobs contacted Duran and Bazzel and offered them roles on Top Rank’s staff this summer.

The two were eager for work and promptly accepted his proposal, consenting to life in the hotel and virus testing ahead of every fight card. They moved into their respective rooms ahead of the promotion’s first card June 9, beginning the most peculiar job of their careers.

“It’s unprecedented, really,” Jacobs said. “To ask a guy to go to Vegas or New York or somewhere for five or six days to get ready for a fight and be there, that’s one thing. Here, we’re talking a couple of months.”

Duran and Bazzel often eat all their three meals together and often spend an hour or two dining to maximize their time outside of their hotel rooms. Then it’s back to their rooms until the next meal.

Weigh-ins, which they attend, offer a moment of reprieve for the cutmen, and they’ll often scout the boxers beforehand and playfully predict who they’ll tend to come fight night. They’re allowed by Top Rank to work with fighters to whom they’ve tended to before, with the other cutman assuming the opposite corner.

Otherwise, the fighters will flip a coin during weigh-ins for the right to select one of two envelopes, inside which are Duran and Bazzel’s names.

“When they find out who we’re working with, we’ll go over there and introduce ourselves,” Duran said. “We’ll ask them the pertinent questions. … And then I’ll talk to them about working the corners with the team and the fighters. Just the confidence builders.”

Fight night

Every so often, a trainer will double as a fighter’s cutman and give Duran or Bazzel a break. But they’re mostly working one fight after another, making for some exhausting evenings.

After the first couple cards, Duran referred veteran local cutman Bob Ware to Jacobs. He was hired to work alongside Duran and Bazzel to create a formidable three-man team that services the fighters and their needs.

“I don’t think I’d worked much this year until Top Rank said I could start doing their shows,” said the 49-year-old Ware, best known for his work in Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s corner. “With the way things are going, this is what we have to do.”

Fight nights provide a sense of normalcy, and Bazzel said he’s too focused on the fights to notice that there aren’t spectators. Duran also said working without a crowd isn’t a problem, but he noted that his glasses tend to fog because of his mask.

He’s learned to adjust, though, and enjoys meeting and working with new fighters and their teams.

“They’re so grateful just for me working their corner,” said Duran, who often works with the sport’s biggest stars. “It’s special. It really is. I think this is the future, at least for the next six months.”

Duran lives in Las Vegas, some 20 minutes from the hotel, and is allowed to go home for two days upon the completion of Thursday cards before returning on Sundays, when he’s tested again for the virus.

Ware gets to go home, too, but Bazzel hails from the San Francisco Bay Area and has not left the bubble since arriving. Not that he has a problem with that.

“This is history,” Bazzel said. “Right at this moment, because I’m not in the outside world and don’t have outside contact physically, I don’t see the big picture yet.

“But I think when this is over, we’ll look back and we’ll have stuff to read about, stuff to talk about. People will bring it up to us. That’s exciting, to be a part of boxing in a really unprecedented way.”

Contact reporter Sam Gordon at sgordon@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BySamGordon on Twitter.