In a dramatic turn of events at the ACA 166 in St. Petersburg, Russia, an ACA welterweight grand prix bout took a gruesome turn. Edil Esengulov landed a hard elbow on Vinicius Cruz while on the ground in the fourth round, leading to a severe injury.
Cruz’s cauliflower ear was partially severed, resulting in blood spraying across the canvas. The referee halted the match, and after a brief examination, the cageside doctor deemed it necessary to call off the fight. This incident left Cruz visibly frustrated and highlighted the intense physicality of mixed martial arts competitions.
Cauliflower ear often seems like some mythical force when a white belt first falls in love with Jiu Jitsu. It’s a big problem, but it’s never really discussed in depth by professors and only really seems to be mentioned in strategy planning for competition. “If your takedowns aren’t so good and your opponent has really bad cauliflower ear, then you might want to pull guard since they probably used to wrestle.”.
Cauliflower ear is normally caused or earned (for the ones who find it cool) through many years of hard training in grappling sports. It is very noticeable so it really isn’t something that you should want to have if you are not wrestling, grappling etc…
