Justin Wren has fought on some of the biggest stages in MMA and has traveled the world. For all his travels, he can still be surprised.
Now a heavyweight in Bellator, Wren (12-2 MMA, 2-0 BMMA) attended WSOF 31 to corner teammate Josh Copeland (12-4) in his main event bid for Blagoy Ivanov’s (14-1) heavyweight title.
The thrilling bout quickly turned into a bloodbath. Copeland suffered a nasty cut below his eye in the first round. It was at that point, Wren told MMAjunkie, things went sideways.
“First and foremost, this is no excuse for Josh’s performance, he fought his heart out,” Wren said. “But we were left hanging by, what I consider, the worst experience I’ve ever had with a cutman. … He told us, ‘I’m so experienced. I’ve been around the game for a long time. Sorry if I messed up the first round, but we fixed him up after the second round.’ But, for a world title fight against Ivanov, our cutman was paying attention to Ivanov instead of our corner.”
According to Wren, no one in Copeland’s corner could track down the cutman when he was most desperately needed.
“Literally, me and Jake Ramos – head coach at Grudge with Trevor Whitman – we were yelling for the cutman; our other two two cornermen who aren’t in the cage are yelling for the cutman because Josh has a two-inch gash under his eye,” Wren said. “From the right side to the left side. He’s getting stitches right now. We’re yelling for the cutman and he’s nowhere to be found. After the end of the first round, we’re walking out to start the second round and he starts walking up to our corner after the first round is over. We asked where he was and he said, ‘I was paying attention to Ivanov.’ Do your job. This is a world title fight.”
The issue, Wren said, was the lack of attention leading to a bad cut getting worse. Copeland required nine stitches after the bout to close the cut.
When the cutman didn’t show in the corner, the wound was left untreated, and without the aid of vaseline and other treatments, the skin continued to tear over the second round.
“The cut got twice as bad after the first round because he got no attention,” Wren said. “It’s a world title fight. He says, “I made up for it didn’t I after the second round?’ No. It’s a world title fight. Don’t leave us hanging. It could have caused a stoppage. Ivanov’s almost did. It makes zero attention at this level in a world title fight. Why isn’t a cutman attending to his fighter in his corner?”
For complete coverage of WSOF 31, check out the MMA Eventssection of the site.
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