Okay, so I was watching the fights the other night, you know, Poirier was on. And I couldn’t help but notice his ear. Man, that thing is something else. Looked all puffed up and weird, kinda like crumpled paper.
It got me curious, really curious. What actually happened there? Is it painful? Does it feel weird? I just had to figure it out. So, like anyone else, I started digging around online. My first search was simple, something like “what’s wrong with Dustin Poirier ear”.
Diving Into It
Straight away, the term cauliflower ear popped up everywhere. Okay, so that’s the name for it. Seemed like a common thing for fighters, wrestlers, rugby players too. Guys who get their ears banged around a lot.
So, my next step was figuring out how it happens. From what I gathered, it’s basically damage. Repeated hits, hard rubbing, stuff like that. It makes blood collect between the cartilage and the skin. If you don’t drain it fast, that blood starts to harden, clot up, and then the tissue just kinda… dies and fibroses? It forms this hard, lumpy shape. Doesn’t go back to normal.
- Saw some diagrams showing the blood pooling.
- Read stories from guys who got it.
- Watched a few videos (kinda gross) of people draining it with needles. Not for the faint of heart, let me tell you.
Honestly, seeing the close-ups and understanding the process… wow. It’s basically a permanent injury from trauma. The cartilage gets separated, loses its blood supply from the skin side, and just collapses on itself when the blood hardens.
What I Think Now
Spent a good chunk of time just reading forums, watching fighter interviews where they mention it. Some guys seem proud of it, like a badge of honor showing they’ve put the work in, taken the hits. Others seem pretty annoyed by it, especially if it gets infected or blocks their ear canal a bit.
Poirier’s ear is definitely a classic example. It looks like it’s been through the wringer quite a few times. Must have hurt like hell when it was fresh and swollen before it hardened up.
So yeah, that was my little investigation. Started with just seeing Poirier’s ear during the fight and ended up learning a whole lot about cauliflower ear. Doesn’t look pleasant, but I guess it comes with the territory for those guys. Definitely gives you a bit more respect for the grind they go through, right down to their ears getting permanently changed.
