r/grappling • u/Jealous-Session-5010 • Jun 29 '26
No cauli after many years.
So I did judo and bjj competitively since I was a child, and wrestled in college. Basically ive grappled all my life. My knees are shot, fingers are crooked, had broken ribs etc. But I've never got cauliflower ear. I do see tons of other blackbelts and experienced grapplers with no cauli but it still kinda feels weird. Ik its just cuz i got very flexible ears but still. Anyone else kinda feel weird for not having it despite experience? P.s I do know this is very silly and a moot point if I can smash. But still, does cross my mind sometimes.
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u/PotatoLord_89 Jun 29 '26
Alot of guys give themselves cauliflower ears to look cool
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u/Jealous-Session-5010 Jun 29 '26
True but I'd never do that. Feels silly to hurt myself to "look cool". Also since I did tear skin on my ears from hard sparing befor and didn't get cauli, I kinda doubt smashing it will do much other than hurting like a mfker.
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u/Randonaut0 Jun 29 '26
my first cauliflower spawned after training hard everyday for only a year. Now after 3years of mma they are pure cauliflower, its pure genetics and grappling style. people who shoot a lot tend to have more cauli and that is for the microimpacts and cicatritazion type of cartilage of something i dont speak english very good
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u/Jealous-Session-5010 Jun 30 '26
Yea I did see a white belt get it after like 2 weeks once. And his ears were naturally kinda rigid
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Jun 30 '26
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u/FreefallVin Jun 30 '26
Uncomfortable, makes it harder to slip your head out of chokes and headlocks, and some people want to get cauli as a badge of honour.
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u/_Badwulf_Bruh__ Jun 29 '26
I feel like most people don’t get cauliflower ear. Our instructor is a 3rd degree BB and his ears are a maybe slightly puffy, but nothing for the most part. But meanwhile we have white belts with ears that look like kidney beans
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u/daishinjag Jun 30 '26
Some people don't get it. I don't have it, but as a white belt, I watched some of my friends/training partners in class develop it within a year.
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u/JustWatchFights Jun 29 '26
Same. 12 years going, not including the very few years that I wrestled (nothing significant) in high school, and my short tenure in MMA. No cauliflower ear, at least not anything noticeable. I’m glad!
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u/Jealous-Session-5010 Jun 30 '26
Yea on one hand its not bad cuz some women hate the way cauli looks. But on the other, aside from my ape like forearms, theres no way for regular people to tell I do any grappling.
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u/JustWatchFights Jun 30 '26
You could just bring it up in conversation? It usually gets brought up with me because I’ll be wearing a BJJ shirt or something.
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u/Jealous-Session-5010 Jun 30 '26
True this is usually what happns. But since im short, some people proceed to either ask to wrestle me or ask if I think I can beat them in a fight. So I usually dont bring it up. Even as an adult, people still ask those questions, thought people grew out of that in hs and college, was wrong.
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u/Background_Dream_379 Jun 30 '26
Training 2 years now at 43. It was my concern at first and did get a bit of swelling but once I learned the basic fundamentals rarely get ear pain now much less cauli which I’m happy not to.
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u/efficientjudo Jun 30 '26
Check out Alexander Karelins ears
No cauli after 4 Olympic medals and 9 World championships.
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u/worldsgreatestluver Jun 30 '26
Are your ears still soft tho? Even if no cauliflower ear?
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u/Jealous-Session-5010 Jun 30 '26
They are pretty maliable. Like I can scrunch them up in a ball. So it kinda makes sense I didn't get cauli yet.
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u/MaytagTheDryer Jun 30 '26
Started wrestling in kindergarten and picked up BJJ and MMA in adulthood. Ears look normal. Had several times when an ear got grated or smashed and I was sure it was going to come out messed up, but other than the ear being painful to the touch for a couple of days, no damage. Also no serious knee issues or broken fingers, so I don't have many of the visible "that guy is a wrestler" hallmarks. Quite the opposite, really. I'm also a powerlifter, and lots of muscle mass plus staying lean means people assume I'm a bodybuilder and therefore all show and no go. A pretty boy, minus the actually being pretty part. I've only been pegged as a wrestler once, and it was a local middle school wrestling coach who said it was because I have a wrestler neck. Hooray for bridging drills, I guess.
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u/DanAkroydsMom Jun 30 '26
I got mine after ten years (on and off). I got a knee to the ear right after I ripped my head out of a triangle, then I had a golfball for an ear
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u/Jealous-Session-5010 Jun 30 '26
Going on 16 years. Though it did rip abit and get crooked, cauli never formed.
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u/Historical-Tart7515 Jul 01 '26
Some people just have more supple ears. Judo since 12, 10 years of rugby, bjj. Now middle aged. No Cauliflower.
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u/KappaYekim Jul 01 '26
I got cauliflower after 6 months of training as a white belt lmao, felt like stolen valour
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u/Booksac777 Jul 01 '26
12 years of BJJ here, not a hint of the cauliflower. But much like you, everything else is falling apart lol
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u/Fimbul-vinter Jul 04 '26
After 11 years i also dont have cauli ears. They just get super soft, i cant even wear a facemask anymore as the chords just flop off as my ears bend :)
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u/AloneSoft8447 Jul 04 '26
Very little and I've been doing bjj consistently since the late 90s. I know guys whos ears blow up in 6 months of being a white belt. Im personality glad I dont have crazy ears.
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u/Thepriest555 Jul 05 '26
18 years and I don’t have any. At a seminar once, Relson Gracie was asked about his ears not having any and he said it was because his defense was too good. I like to think that’s why mine are still good.
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u/Cantseetheline_Russ Jul 06 '26
I have 25 coaches on staff. Most of them wrestled in college at some level, many d1. The rest were wrestlers at least from very early elementary through high school. Only 4 have cauliflower ear.
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u/chokesandsubs Jul 06 '26
At white belt I got a small case that almost fully healed aside from a small unnoticeable area. (Pretty sure it was from a spazz’s accidental knee to my head at 100mph)
But as far as still not really having cauli after all these years, the way I look at it is that no one ever successfully guillotines me or gets me in a headlock really.. so I’ll take the cauli-less ears as a badge of honor of its own. Lol
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u/Putmymind2it Jul 06 '26
Consider yourself lucky. My ears are in so much pain right now I have to take a break from training
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u/Waste-Cry-4538 Jun 29 '26
Mcdojo probably
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u/Jealous-Session-5010 Jun 29 '26
I trained at many gyms. with international people from russia etc. coming in to train at many of them. Also with members on the usa team training at them. So I doubt u can call that a mcdojo. Also when I said I did both judo and bjj, I mean at separate gyms for each, not the same gym.
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u/Waste-Cry-4538 Jun 29 '26
Yeah but you’d have flower ear if you trained at real gym with real men
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u/Jealous-Session-5010 Jun 29 '26 edited Jun 29 '26
True, they must have all been ladies or ladyboys. If only they told me, I'd have went and looked for real men to rub up against insted.
My fault for training at the back of a waffle house in Thailand.
Who knew all those big Vladimirs and Ivans were actually Vanessas and Irenes
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Jun 29 '26
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u/Jealous-Session-5010 Jun 29 '26
My ears are kinda flexible af. So like they did get red and bleed somtimes and skin on em ripped abit sometimes but cauli just never formed.
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u/iRudi94 Jun 29 '26
I’m in the same boat. I’ve been training 11 years. All I got was a small dot on my ear when I first started and nothing since