Why do mma fighters tape their ears?

UFC Fighters Ears When the cartilage of the ear gets injured by inflammation or trauma, the blood supply gets messed up, and blood has nowhere to go, so it formes a hematoma. . Other options include the use of tape or rapid treatment after trauma to prevent it from forming.

“Cauliflower ear” is a straightforward name, as it looks like an ear that’s been turned into a cauliflower. The injury can appear in different ways. After all, getting a cauliflower ear ultimately depends on where a fighter gets hurt.

As Healthline reports, cauliflower ears happen when there’s direct trauma to the ear. It can cause blood to pool up and create bulges. Since direct trauma is the cause of cauliflower ear, it’s no surprise that they’re a common injury in combat sports.

While it’s rare for a fighter to get a cauliflower ear after one fight, many athletes can develop cauliflower ear over time from training.

Since cauliflower ears are a common result of training, naturally, a lot of UFC fighters have cauliflower ears. For many fighters, it’s just how things are; it’s not that big of a deal.

However, as Bleacher Report reports, cauliflower ears are considered a badge of honor to some fighters. This is especially true in the wrestling world. Great wrestlers, like Khabib Nurmagomedov, have fought with cauliflower ears before.

While cauliflower ears are usually harmless, sometimes, they can hurt a fighter. That’s because cauliflower ears can pop. When that happens, it can create a bloody mess that may force the doctor to call the fight off. That’s exactly what happened to Leslie Smith at UFC 180 in 2014.

She was fighting with a cauliflower ear. Her opponent, Jessica Eye, landed a punch that popped her cauliflower ear. It wasn’t a knockout blow. Smith didn’t even know her ear popped. However, the sight of the appendage flopping around after popping was too nasty. The doctor and ref ultimately agreed to stop the fight.

Smith was angry about the decision and wanted to keep fighting. However, her ear popping like that cost her the fight. So it’s usually a good idea for fighters to prevent and working on fixing their cauliflower ears before they become an issue. Indeed, Healthline reports that someone can do several things to remedy their cauliflower ear.

Preventing cauliflower ears is actually pretty easy, as it simply means avoiding getting hit in the ears or wearing a helmet when training and competing. That being said, pro fighters can’t wear helmets, so that’s mostly good advice for everyone else.

In any case, if you do get hit on the ear, other things can be done. Healthline recommends icing the injury spot as soon as possible, as that can stop the cauliflower ear from happening. Of course, as you develop your MMA career, you should always consult a doctor about health concerns.

If you already have a cauliflower ear, then Healthline said a doctor can drain the blood, so it’s less apparent. However, cauliflower ears are permanent, so fighters may need to do this several times.

If an athlete wants to have “normal” ears, then they’ll need to get an otoplasty. This surgery can reshape the ear. Once again, the best person to consult about health-related concerns is your doctor.

They are called cauliflower ears, and although old fans don’t even perceive them as weird anymore, many new fans ask themselves the same question: “Why do UFC fighters have weird ears?”.

UFC fighters have weird ears because of the blows their ears receive, which causes them to cramp up. That state of ears is called cauliflower ears. There are ways to minimize the damage and make the ears look somewhat nicer, but most fighters prefer them the way they are.

I will talk about how cauliflower ears develop, how to prevent it, and about famous fighters who have them.

My first experience with MMA and cauliflower ears was when Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipović fought in a Japanese organization, Pride FC.

I would wake up early and watch the fights with my dad, and I still do that today.

Pride FC is long gone, and “Cro Cop” retired, but new fighters and new organizations appear every day.

My obsession with MMA will never end the same way cauliflower ears won’t stop drawing new fan’s attention, so let me teach you something new.

The medical term for cauliflower ear is a perichondrial hematoma, but athletes want to keep it simple, so cauliflower ear is a better term to use.

Although cauliflower ears are mostly associated with MMA fighters, many athletes outside of MMA have cauliflower ears.

The fact is that in any close-contact sport, there is a high chance of developing them, and even you can get them although you probably don’t engage in such activities. So, let’s talk about the way cauliflower ears are formed.

When the cartilage of the ear gets injured by inflammation or trauma, the blood supply gets messed up, and blood has nowhere to go, so it formes a hematoma.

The cartilage gets separated from the overlying perichondrium, so nutrients can’t reach it, and it dies off.

Cartilage gets replaced by fibrous tissue and gives the ear its new look.

The only real way to prevent cauliflower ears from forming is by wearing protective headgear during any activity that includes close contact.

Even more important is to get the right size of headgear that perfectly fits you because a helmet that doesn’t fit right can do more harm than good to you.

The main problem with this is that professional MMA fighters can’t use headgear during their fights, so most of them abandon that option during training.

Other options include the use of tape or rapid treatment after trauma to prevent it from forming.

The treatment greatly depends on the size and scope of the deformity as well as the time passed since the trauma happened.

The exterior ear can’t be easily damaged, so any trauma that causes that kind of damage needs to be treated carefully, so no critical intracranial injuries are not overlooked.

Treatment starts with a thorough head and neck examination, including a cranial nerve examination, an inspection of the tympanic membranes, and a detailed neurologic examination.

With everything out of the way, the treatment of the ear can start. The ideal time frame to treat the ear is up to six hours after the injury happened since the cartilage death hasn’t occurred yet.

The medical worker anesthetizes the ear with lidocaine and then inserts an 18-gauge needle into the hematoma.

A more painful treatment is required if the patient reached medical attention outside of the 6 hours, where aspiration has the highest success rate.

If that is the case, an invasive incision needs to be performed to remove any coagulated blood.

The most annoying thing about treating cauliflower ear is the chance of recurring.

Even if all of the coagulated blood is removed and the perichondrium can reattach to the cartilage, there is still a chance that blood will re-accumulate.

It will look like nothing has been done, especially if the patient is a professional athlete and does not have the luxury of stopping the training camp.

Not all MMA fighters have cauliflower ears. As mentioned above, some fighters simply don’t form cauliflower ears.

But, there are still some who have them.

Alexander “The Mauler” Gustafsson is a Swedish MMA fighter. Although retired, he is still regarded as one of the greatest fighters of the UFC light-heavyweight division.

He was never a champion but fought many top contenders, as well as former and current champions. The biggest performances of his career were his fights against John Jones and Daniel Cormier.

He lost via split decision in both fights but showed the world he can fight with the best as they earned The Performance of the Night bonuses.

Since then he had a mixed record, even retiring after the loss to Anthony Smith.

Still, he returned to fight in the heavyweight division against the former UFC champion Fabricio Werdum.

His fight record now stands at eighteen wins and seven losses.

Because of the rigorous practice and all the “wars” he has been through, it is no coincidence that his ears morphed into something that doesn’t even resemble an ear anymore.

With that in mind, he had something interesting to say after an interviewer asked if he would fix them after retirement.

He answered: “I’m proud of them. It means I’ve gone through some tough battles.”

The next fighter on my list is Frankie “The Answer” Edgar. He is the former UFC lightweight champion and one of the toughest fighters that ever fought in UFC.

He holds wins against Charles Oliviera, Urijah Faber, Jeremy Stephens, and Yair Rodriguez, just to name a few.

Even though he beat many great fighters, he is mostly known for beating B.J. Penn three times.

His ears aren’t the worst ones on this list but aren’t pretty either as they stick out of his head.

“The Answer” doesn’t care about what they look like and wears them as a badge of honor. They also mix well with his personality.

He suffered a devastating KO loss in his last fight against Cory Sandhagen and now bouts a 24 and 9 record.

BJ “The Prodigy” Penn is one of the MMA pioneers, a UFC and Pride FC veteran, and a fighter who belongs on every MMA legend list.

He suffered seven losses in a row and now has a record with 16 wins and 14 losses. Because of that, many new fans can’t even comprehend what a great fighter he once was.

He fought in Featherweight, Lightweight, Welterweight, and even Heavyweight.

Also, he is the first non-Brazilian to win the black belt division of the world jiu-jitsu championship.

As for his ears, they don’t look alike. Both are badly damaged, but the left one is special, as sometimes you can’t even resemble what it once looked like.

Leslie “The Peacemaker” Smith is the first female fighter on our list, but nothing less frightening than the male part.

Although she has seven fights in the UFC and now fights in Bellator, she is mostly known for the literal explosion of her ear in her match against Jessica Eye.

She entered the fight with a big cauliflower ear, and it only took her opponent one punch to hit the ear, with it “exploding” with blood.

After a few minutes, the fight was stopped as it looked like the ear was on the verge of falling off.

The last fighter I will cover in this list is the legendary Kazushi “The Gracie Hunter” Sakuraba.

In the era of MMA, when the Gracie family ruled with their BJJ, he was the one fighter to stop them. And boy, did he deliver.

He defeated four fighters of the Gracie family and acquired the nickname: “The Gracie Hunter.”

He won the UFC Japan Heavyweight Tournament and holds wins against Ken Shamrock, Kevin Randleman, Rampage Jackson, and Vitor Belfort, just to name a few.

His current record is 26 wins and 17 losses. With that many fights and such a crazy career, you would think that his ears must be really messed up, and you would be right.

Probably the craziest thing in his career happened when he fought Marius Zaromskis at Dynamite 2010.

After a punch to the ear, Sakuraba’s ear bursted open and caused the referee to stop the fight, so the doctor can perform an inspection.

The fight continued, but Zaromskis hit Sakuraba hard in the ear one again, so the ear partially tore off from his head, and the fight was stopped.

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Even if you are not a combat sports fan, you have likely heard about the famous street rule that says “Never mess with a person who has cauliflower ears.” The persons having those have likely paid their dues in MMA or other fighting sports.

This type of ear defect is very common among MMA and fighters competing in grappling arts whose ears are frequently injured. And, you can see athletes from other sports like Rugby having disfigured ears as well.

Even though cauliflower ears may look risky, they are not. This is not a terrible injury and you can heal it fast if you get medical care on time. But if you left the injury untreated, it can lead to bad and permanent deformity of the ear.

And, we have to make one thing clear. Not all MMA fighters have cauliflower ears and training MMA doesn’t mean you will deform your ears. Generally, wearing a headgear greatly reduces the chance of you disfiguring your ears.

So if cauliflower ear is the reason that holds you back from joining the MMA classes, I have great news for you! In this article, we will bring you closer to why MMA fighters get cauliflower ears and how you can prevent it. We will show you how you can train MMA without worrying much about disfiguring your ears.

The reason is simple; MMA is a sport that involves striking to the side of the ear and grappling exchanges that rub off the ear, which are the two main causes of cauliflower ears.

Let’s see how the four most important fighting styles in MMA contribute to the development of cauliflower ears:

The process of developing the Cauliflower ear is very simple in combat arts. The main causes of this type of ear deformity are frequent hits (strikes) to the ear or when the ear gets rubbed during the grappling exchanges.

A small blood clot gets created each time you get hit in the outer part of the ear. This blood clot forms between the connective tissue of the upper ear and cartilage. The clot stops the blood flow to the cartilage, which damages the tissue, causing it to die. As these tissues die, the ear will start healing itself by forming a much tougher fibrous tissue which results in an ear that looks like a cauliflower.

The medical explanation of what causes cauliflower ears may sound complex. But, spotting the early symptoms is not. The first sign of cauliflower ear may be the swelling of the ear. The damaged area of the ear can also become red or bruised which is a sign of the lack of blood flow.

If you spot these changes on your ear, don’t panic. Make sure to call a doctor and get medical care as soon as you can.

You may find this hard to believe, but there are MMA fighters who want their ears to look deformed. Some of them go even further by damaging their ears on purpose just so that they can have cauliflower ears and here is why.

In most MMA/Martial Arts circles, cauliflower ears are a sign of toughness and battle experience. And, many fighters wear them as a badge of honor, conveying a clear sign to the people around them they train MMA/Martial Arts and that you shouldn’t mess around with them on street.

Cauliflower ears have also become a somewhat popular trend among teenage martial arts students. Many of them who train BJJ or wrestling left their ears untreated on purpose just so they can look tougher in the eyes of more senior students.

Further, even some of the most famous UFC fighters proudly wear cauliflower ears. The most famous ones are the former UFC champs Randy Couture and Khabib Nurmagomedov.

For instance, Randy’s ears are so damaged that you can’t escape but asking yourself how he even hears anything?

Most people think that there is no way you can avoid damaging your ears training MMA. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth as you can train and compete in MMA without worrying too much about your ears.

The most important thing is to wear headgear or ear guards during the training sessions.

Further, wearing protective gear is not enough. You must be extra cautious that this type of gear fits well with your size of the head. This is a common mistake MMA students make and one of the reasons why they often damage their ears despite wearing headgear. Wearing headgear that is too big or below your size doesn’t mean your face and ears are protected.

If the headgear you wear is too tight and below your head size, it will always rub against your ears. Even though this may not hurt much, it will deform your ear over a certain period of time.

And, wearing a headgear that is above your head size won’t prevent cauliflower ears either. A headgear that feels loose may slip out of place during the training, leaving ear exposed. So instead of wearing a headgear that feels loose or too tight, get the one that fits with your size and is comfortably secured around your head.

If you spot any changes in your ear or you feel any pain, there is still a good chance you can avoid a cauliflower ear. The first thing you can do is to take the ice and apply it to a damaged area of the ear. Ice is good for all types of injuries since it reduces the swelling and lowers the pain. Yet, this is just first aid; you must go to a doctor for medical care as soon as possible.

A doctor can treat the injury much better by draining the collection of blood inside your ear that stops the blood flow to the affected tissues. The process is not painful or complicated. He/she will make a small incision so that the blood can drain out of the injury. Or in some other cases doctors may use a needle to drain the blood out of the damaged area of the ear.

Once that’s over, they will use stitches to reconnect the tissues and place a special bandage to ensure the ear heals in the correct shape back again. Here is a great video of how MMA fighters get their ear drained:

After the treatment is over, doctors might prescribe you antibiotics therapy to prevent infections. You should avoid training or doing any type of activity that may damage your ear once again. The rest period really depends on the injury, and you shouldn’t make decisions on your own. You should return to training and other activities once the doctor approves it.

Unfortunately, the cauliflower ear is a permanent deformity in most cases. If you don’t take medical care on time, there’s a big chance the deformity is just too big to heal or reshape back to its normal condition.

The only thing that may help you, in this case, is the cosmetic ear surgery called Otoplasty. This is a medical procedure that repairs or reshapes the outer ear and it is widely considered a non-risky procedure.

Otoplasty is not a complex surgery and you won’t feel any high pain. The doctors will first give you a local anesthetic before making a cut behind your damaged ear. They will remove some part of the cartilage or reshape your ear by using stitches.

These stitches may stay permanent to hold the back of the ear in place and the scar usually fades over time. The surgery lasts around 1-2 hours on average, and you may expect to be back in training in six weeks.

UFC Fighters Ears When the cartilage of the ear gets injured by inflammation or trauma, the blood supply gets messed up, and blood has nowhere to go, so it formes a hematoma. The only real way to prevent cauliflower ears from forming is by wearing protective headgear during any activity that includes close contact.

What is wrong with MMA fighters ears?

Cauliflower ear is an acquired deformity of the outer ear. It is usually due to blunt trauma to the ear. Wrestlers, boxers, and martial artists in particular are susceptible to this type of injury, therefore, cauliflower ear is also sometimes called boxer’s ear or wrestler’s ear.

Why is cauliflower ear bad?

A study by the Asian Journal of Sports Medicine in 2015 showed athletes with cauliflower ear are more likely to have ear infections, possibly because it “may increase the probability of collection of pathogenic microorganisms in the ear canal and thereby increase the rate of infection in such ears.”

“People want to feel them, squeeze them and take pictures. These ears attract a crowd.” Couture has cauliflower ear, a relatively common affliction among fighters, wrestlers and other contact-sport athletes. Years of being pulled, punched and torn can create blood clots in the ear and damage the tissue.

Why do fighters use Vaseline?

Treatments. Before the fight, cutmen will usually put petroleum jelly on the most likely areas of impact, especially the fighter’s face, making the skin more elastic and slippery, and hence less likely to tear. Cutmen might also tape fighters’ hands, which helps protect the bones and tendons.

Can you lose hearing from cauliflower ear?

As blood begins to pool around the injured area, fresh blood supply to your ear cartilage is cut off. Left untreated, cauliflower ear can lead to: ringing in your ear. hearing loss.

Here at the Ear of the Fighter we know that the large majority of female MMA fighters are legit, dedicated warriors. Here’s a tip o’ the hat to the top 10 female MMA fighters with cauliflower ear. These are broads who live to scrap, and wear their ugly ears like a badge of honor. 10. Sara McMann

What kind of ears do UFC fighters have?

One of the more common forms of battle-scar of sported by UFC fighters is a set of cauliflower ears. Common to athletes involved in most close-contact sports, cauliflower ears occur when the external portion of the ear is hit or regularly has pressure put onto it.

Who are the top female MMA fighters in the world?

23 year old Brazilian Bantamweight fighter Jessica Andrade is 3-1 in the UFC, and scraps like she’s up in the favela. As a fashion note, nothing goes better with some powerful corn rows than a little ear nugget. 8. Sarah Kaufman As the first ever Strikeforce women’s Bantamweight champion, Sarah Kaufman is OG in the world of female MMA fighters.

What is a Cauliflower ear is a condition that occurs when the external portion of the ear suffers a blow, blood clot or other collection of fluid under the perichondrium.

This separates the cartilage from the overlying perichondrium that supplies its nutrients, causing it to die and resulting in the formation of fibrous tissue in the overlying skin.

As a result, the outer ear becomes permanently swollen and deformed, resembling a cauliflower. That sounds rather unpleasant.

Without quick treatment involving the draining of the swollen ear, it will calcify and remain deformed for life, however, most fighters are not so quick to seek treatment for several reasons.

The most quoted reason is that it has become something of a badge of honour for the super tough, a sign that the bearer of such ears is a trained fighter or grappler who has put in their time in the training room.

Another reason not to seek treatment is because of the high likelihood of the injury reoccurring during another training session. Fighters don’t like to wear head gear, so they simply accept the cauliflower ear look and get on with it.

Not all cauliflower ear is created equal of course, so let’s take a look at some of the worst occurrences in the brief history of mixed martial arts!

It’s hard to talk about cauliflower ear without mentioning Sweden’s favourite fighting son, Alexander Gustafsson. ‘The Mauler’ is currently the number 2 ranked light-heavyweight contender in the UFC and is known for being the man who almost beat the unbeatable, Jon Jones. Back in 2013 Gustafsson faced Jones in what many thought would not be a competitive bout, however, he managed to go all five rounds with the champion, pushed the pace, landed often and even secured some take-downs. In the end, he lost a close decision but cemented his place as one of the greatest light-heavyweight fighters in the world.

The opening to his ears remains clear however his upper lobes have been morphed into random collections of skin protruding from the sides of his face. They serve to add to his tall and imposing frame, giving him a very intimidating look. Gustafsson is a natural fighter, a true champion born to pursue the martial arts. If you ever had any doubt as to a fighter’s mindset when it comes to their ears, just listen to The Mauler’s response when asked if he would have them repaired after he retires. He answered, ‘I’m proud of them, it means I’ve gone through some tough battles.’ That is the mindset of true warrior.

Frankie Edgar is as tough as they come, the former UFC lightweight champion and current top-ranked featherweight contender takes on all comers with expertly executed takedowns, dominant top control and relentless cardio. He’s also one of the most technical boxers in the UFC, and he possesses some very impressive and noteworthy ears.  Cauliflower ears can often shrivel up into small circles, or they can be long and stick out from the head, Edgar’s are definitely the latter.

You can be sure of three things in life, death, taxes and the fact that Frankie ‘The Answer’ Edgar cares very little about what his ears look like. In a way, they actually work as the perfect accompaniment to his tough New Jersey personality. They are a part of the Edgar that fans know and respect, that badge of honour we mentioned earlier. However, they are far from the worst we have ever seen. The next man on our list is someone whom Frankie is very familiar with.

BJ Penn may have lost three fights to Frankie Edgar, but in his prime, the man known as ‘The Prodigy’ belongs on every list of MMA legends out there, and on our list of the worst cauliflower ears. The Prodigy is the perfect name for the man from Hilo, Hawaii. BJ earned his Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt in just three years and was the first non-Brazilian to win the black-belt division of the world jiu-jitsu championship. He competed in mixed martial arts in the Featherweight, Lightweight, Welterweight, Middleweight, and Heavyweight divisions. That’s right, he fought Lyoto Machida at heavyweight back in 2005 in k1. He is the former UFC lightweight and welterweight champion and one of the all-time greats of our sport.

BJ’s ears are actually quite different from each other, with his left ear usually being singled out as the prime example of horrendous cauliflower ear. Another thing to understand is that cauliflower ears will often vary from year to year and fight to fight, training, sparring and fights inside the octagon can damage the ear further, altering it’s appearance. Over a long career, several different pictures will crop up showing their ears at the best or worst, in Penn’s case the worst is probably a well-known shot that essentially shows his left ear looking like two smaller pieces of ear that hardly meet in the middle. When he’s an old man living on the beach in Hawaii, when his grandchildren ask him about his strange ears, he can tell them all about the time he became a two-division UFC Champion.

English heavyweight James Thompson competed in MMA organizations such as pride and Bellator among others. He is, however, best known for a headline bout in EliteXC in which he took on Kimbo Slice back in 2008. He entered the cage with a noticeably swollen cauliflower ear to begin with but managed to get to round three without much trouble, winning both rounds one and two with superior grappling. However things went downhill from there, eventually Kimbo landed a big punch to the left ear of Thompson, and it quite literally exploded. Blood was everywhere, what remained of the ear was really just some dangling skin stuck to the side of his face. The referee stepped in to stop the fight and outraged Thompson in the process. After all, it was just an ear.

UFC bantamweight contender Leslie Smith proves that cauliflower ears aren’t just for the men of MMA. Although not as bad James Thompson’s overly swollen growth, she entered her fight against Jessica Eye in 2014 with recognisable cauliflower ear. Early in the fight Eye threw a punch that scraped along the left ear of Smith, causing it to erupt it glorious HD. The fight had to be stopped a few minutes later when it appeared as though her ear was on the verge of falling off. Smith for her part was against the stoppage, proving once again that MMA athletes will endure just about anything to get the win.

No list of cauliflower ears would be complete without the inclusion of this man. Randy ‘The Natural’ Couture was the first ever two division champion in the UFC capturing belts at both light-heavyweight and heavyweight. The latter of which he won well into his 40’s. He is a veteran of a record 15 UFC title fights and one of the stars of The Expendables movies. He is also number 2 on our list.

The Natural grew up wrestling, developing a gritty toughness that would serve him well in his UFC career, and a nasty set of ears. His brand of cauliflower ears can be described as ceasing to resemble ears in any way. They are now just shapeless lumps of skin stuck to the side of his head, it’s impressive that he is still capable of hearing. With the addition of Randy to our list, it now contains the only two-division champions in UFC history, The UFC hall of fame is fast becoming a Mount Rushmore for cauliflower ear. Whether it’s in the octagon, or on a Hollywood set, you can bet that Randy wears his cauliflower lumps with pride.

Coming in at number one is another true legend of our sport, Japanese native, Kazushi Sakuraba. He is known as the ‘Gracie Hunter’  or the ‘Gracie Killer’ due to his wins over four members of the famed Gracie family, Royler Gracie, Renzo Gracie, Ryan Gracie, and Royce Gracie. In particular, Sakuraba is famous for his initial fight with Royce, which lasted ninety minutes. He is also the former UFC Japan Heavyweight Tournament Champion and holds wins over Vitor Belfort and Rampage Jackson. As with Couture, Sakuraba started his life in combat sports on the wrestling mat at a young age, and possesses a toughness rarely matched.