Cauliflower ear

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Ministry of Silly Walks

came in like a wrecking ball
First 100
Amateur Fighter
Jan 15, 2015
4,566
5,134
ECC170 @ECC170 I know you have experience here.
I had to learn how to drain them on my own, and it's so hard to get needles now, where I live, that my shit is fucked permanently.
 

SC MMA MD

TMMAC Addict
Jan 20, 2015
5,715
10,841
I drained my own ear dozens of times earlier in my grappling journey. My cauliflower is barely noticeable, and I have not gotten it again for years; leading to my theory that once you have a little and it scars down, it is less likely you will get it again. Hopefully I don’t prove my own theory wrong in the future.
 

TheFifthScallop

Who am I kidding? I’m a whore.
Amateur Fighter
Nov 15, 2015
5,833
7,373
I used to drain mine in the beginning, but then gave up because I hated sticking a needle in my ear. I also hated head gear. So now my ears are fucked.
 
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ECC170

Monster's 11,ATM 2,Parlay Challenge,Hero GP Champ
Pro Fighter
Jan 23, 2015
14,376
23,677
ECC170 @ECC170 I know you have experience here.
I had to learn how to drain them on my own, and it's so hard to get needles now, where I live, that my shit is fucked permanently.
I never drained mine just iced them heavily, honestly mine didn't hurt too bad, in wrestling they would swell badly, now my right ear just has no Normal creases or anything it's just flat flat and hard around the edges, my right is lil fatter but not too bad.. My ears healed a ton better than most cuz I had my gf at the time every night using 2 ice cubes to cover both sides and I'd fall asleep like that in my dime pieces lap? now I'm just old and porked up with deformed ears that I earned... Most combat sports get belts us wrestlers get these cauliflower ears.. They're nothing to be ashamed of and if anything they're a warning sign to any fk stick that wants to get stupid imho..
 

DarthBader

Strikeforce lives baby!
Feb 6, 2021
1,017
1,036
Drained mine a couple of times, it kinda looks bad, but who cares about having nice ears anyway, not like it's the first thing people look at anyway. Usually icing helps aswell.
 

BeardOfKnowledge

The Most Consistent Motherfucker You Know
Jul 22, 2015
60,547
56,268
Treating it properly meant not training, so I just left mine alone. My ears looks
infinitely better than anyone I know who drained theirs.
 

Sex Chicken

Exotic Dancer
Sep 8, 2015
25,819
59,498
I never wore head gear except when my ear was swollen. I had my mine "drained" when my head gear slipped down over my ear on a shot and it popped. It fucking killed.
This was years ago but my buddy actually had surgery on his. I don't know who recommended it, probably some family doctor who didn't know what he was doing. They scrapped it out and my friend's ear looks like a sattelite dish, worse than if he would have just let it heal on it's own.
 

Filthy

Iowa Wrestling Champion
Jun 28, 2016
27,507
29,834
Treating it properly meant not training, so I just left mine alone. My ears looks
infinitely better than anyone I know who drained theirs.
i drained mine for awhile, if it was really bad I'd drain it and put a little clamp on it. But mostly when it was injured I drained it every day, wore headgear, and did positional drills for a week or so.

and I'm with SC MMA MD @SC MMA MD, if you treat it and it scars 'normal' you probably won't have bubble ears. I got sick of doing it and learned not to put my head where my ears got abused. But I still have some needles just in case. :)
 

BeardOfKnowledge

The Most Consistent Motherfucker You Know
Jul 22, 2015
60,547
56,268
i drained mine for awhile, if it was really bad I'd drain it and put a little clamp on it. But mostly when it was injured I drained it every day, wore headgear, and did positional drills for a week or so.
At the time I was competing regularly so ditching live training for drills wasn't really practical. I don't believe in the use of headgear for a variety of unrelated reasons, but to each their own.
 

Filthy

Iowa Wrestling Champion
Jun 28, 2016
27,507
29,834
At the time I was competing regularly so ditching live training for drills wasn't really practical. I don't believe in the use of headgear for a variety of unrelated reasons, but to each their own.
yeah - the only time I wear headgear is if I'm draining my ears, and I haven't had to drain my ears for several years. I think it's just a combination of calcifying what gets commonly damaged (the top 1/3ish of my ears) and learning to use your head in a way that doesn't fuck up your ears. :)

when i was a kid and learning to wrestle, my wrestling coach was adamant that headgear CAUSED cauliflower ear.
 

BeardOfKnowledge

The Most Consistent Motherfucker You Know
Jul 22, 2015
60,547
56,268
yeah - the only time I wear headgear is if I'm draining my ears, and I haven't had to drain my ears for several years. I think it's just a combination of calcifying what gets commonly damaged (the top 1/3ish of my ears) and learning to use your head in a way that doesn't fuck up your ears. :)

when i was a kid and learning to wrestle, my wrestling coach was adamant that headgear CAUSED cauliflower ear.
How does one train without putting your head in positions that could lead to fucking up your ears? Just avoid wrestling and tap to all chokes?
 

Filthy

Iowa Wrestling Champion
Jun 28, 2016
27,507
29,834
How does one train without putting your head in positions that could lead to fucking up your ears? Just avoid wrestling and tap to all chokes?
i guess it depends on the person...I was wrecking my ears for awhile trying to fight out of chokes, especially in the gi. I decided if the only way to get out of a choke was to fuck up my ears, it was probably in deep enough to tap, roll it back a step, and start again from there. Then I think there was a point where I was using my "head-lever" in a way that was giving me cauliflower closer to my earhole. But that didn't last long.

Now that I've said all this, I'm going to be draining my ear sometime in the next month. sumbitch.
 

BeardOfKnowledge

The Most Consistent Motherfucker You Know
Jul 22, 2015
60,547
56,268
i guess it depends on the person...I was wrecking my ears for awhile trying to fight out of chokes, especially in the gi. I decided if the only way to get out of a choke was to fuck up my ears, it was probably in deep enough to tap, roll it back a step, and start again from there. Then I think there was a point where I was using my "head-lever" in a way that was giving me cauliflower closer to my earhole. But that didn't last long.

Now that I've said all this, I'm going to be draining my ear sometime in the next month. sumbitch.
I'm jealous. Training is still illegal here because "science".
 

BeardOfKnowledge

The Most Consistent Motherfucker You Know
Jul 22, 2015
60,547
56,268
i have 100 ft2 of dollamur in my garage, and a friend who has a kid with diabetes - so neither of us is accumulating unnecessary risk, and we trust that the other has considerations higher than BJJ that lead them to that behavior.
Ah. Yeah, we aren't allowed to leave our houses, lol.
 

gentlemanscombatives

Well-Known Member
Aug 31, 2020
304
356
I was developing small barely noticable cauliflower nodes early in my grappling, then my coaches son punched me right in the ear and it blew up. I drained it myself and it looks different, but fine.