Islam Makhachev has built his career on being the real thing. The UFC star has spent years absorbing the kind of contact that leaves permanent marks on a fighter’s body, cauliflower ear included. So when he heard that men back home were paying to get that same look without setting foot on a mat, he didn’t hide his discomfort.
“I’ve always been interested in this myth that guys break their ears,” a reporter said, asking about the reports circulating out of Russia. “Do you know anyone who broke their ears in Dagestan on purpose?”
Makhachev admitted he still found the idea hard to believe. “Of course, I still don’t want to believe that somewhere there is a place where you can come and break an ear. Imagine that,” he said.
The UFC star also pointed out how strange it can be when he sees someone with obvious cauliflower ear despite knowing they have never trained in combat sports. “There are people too which I look at, and I know he has never in his life done sports. His ears are broken,” Makhachev said.
The sight has become so unusual to him that he sometimes feels awkward asking how someone ended up with the injury. “I am even ashamed to ask sometimes, where did you break your ear? At the market or what?” he joked.
The trend he’s reacting to was first reported by Baza, a widely followed Russian Telegram channel, which found that cosmetic specialists offering the procedure have built up waitlists stretching months out. Clients aren’t just showing up and hoping for the best, either.
According to the practitioners Baza spoke with, customers can choose exactly where on the ear they want the fracture placed and how pronounced they want the resulting deformity to look. The going rate is about 6,000 rubles per ear, somewhere around $80, which helps explain why the appointment books have filled up so quickly.
Cauliflower ear has traditionally been something combat athletes end up with rather than ask for. Wrestlers, boxers, and MMA athletes develop it after repeated blows and grappling exchanges cause blood and fluid to pool beneath the skin of the ear, hardening over time into the telltale lumpy texture.
Figh ters have long worn it as an unspoken credential, visible proof of time spent training and competing at a high level. That reputation appears to be exactly what’s drawing men to pay for a shortcut version, chasing an aesthetic tied to toughness without any of the process that usually produces it.
Medical professionals are far less enthusiastic about the shortcut. Otolaryngologist Marat Gasanov warned that deliberately fracturing ear cartilage carries real risk, cautioning that the procedure can cause “hearing loss, cartilage inflammation, and possible purulent inflammation that progresses to hematomas.”
😂👂 Islam Makhachev says some people in Dagestan give themselves cauliflower ear on purpose
“There are people too, which I look at, and I know he has never done sports in his life and his ears are broken”
(via prostokulaki) 🔹 pic.twitter.com/rE40zhNMEK
— Home of Fight (@Home_of_Fight) July 30, 2026
