Guaranteed to get cauliflower ear?

Question

Well I am interested in joining a Muay Thai gym and learning Muay Thai. However the only thing that makes me hesitant is cauliflower ear. If I do get into Muay Thai, am I pretty much destined to have cauliflower ear? Is there any way to prevent it?

I have friends who are wrestlers and some of them have cauliflower ear and others dont, so could it also have something to do with genetics and the structure of the ear? My ears have like no structure in them and I can pretty much fold them in all directions, would this have any effect on the chances of cauliflower ear?

Thanks

Answer 1

if your only doing thai you should be fine, just remember headgear when sparring

your friends have it because there wrestlers and its a likely to happen in wrestling than muay thai

Answer 2

wear the ear protectors which wrestlers use. i use it during my grappling session for mma training. this will put the chances of u getting it down. but if u get hit pretty hard, u will still rupture ur ear and get cauliflowers

Answer 3

Cauliflower ear is a consequence of wrestling without head protection, as the ears take a lot of damage during training and blood vessels wind up bursting.  Muay Thai is a purely striking sport and involves no wrestling at all.

Furthermore, cauliflower ears can be drained, but many wrestlers won't bother with it because they know they'll likely get it again and it is also worn as a badge of pride by others.

Answer 4

I only saw one correct answer so I thought I would restate it.  You  WILLNOT get cauliflower ear from muay thai,  look up a bunch of boxers and notice how none of them do.  Only wrestlers generally get it partly because of pride (they like it) and partly because there sport only allows them to escape headlocks a certain way.  BJJ is wrestling too but they rarely get ear problems because of the different ways they move.  Its just greco roman.

Don't worry about it.....its not something that you get after one practice it comes after a year or years of ignoring build up and repeated fluid.

Answer 5

Always wear head protection. That's the only way to prevent it.

Answer 6

as long as you spar with head gear u have nothing too worry about.  a lot wrestlers get it because they dont always wear head gear.