The past of a fighter can be seen on their face. Those who are masters of defense don’t have a lot of history to show for it. It’s obvious in those who take a lot of punches.
Many fighters develop thicker tissue around their brows as a result of collisions and tiny injuries. It isn’t scar tissue in the traditional sense, but rather the product of thousands of impacts. Scar tissue is more common in people who cut a lot. Boxers who cut easily frequently have scar tissue build-up above and around their eyes. People that have a magical defense show little or nothing.
Boxing is a sport in which the goal is to knock out your opponent with a sequence of punches to the head and body. Regardless of who wins the fight after twelve rounds of boxing, both boxers are susceptible to suffering significant injuries. There has been a lot published about major boxing injuries such as concussions, brain damage, and skull and face bone fractures, but let’s take a look at these minor face boxing injuries, and how do fighters deal with them.
Boxers heal their face cuts by having Q-tip soaked in adrenaline inserted into the cut or in the nostril, to halt the bleeding. Hematomas, abrasions, and contusions can be effectively treated with ice and eternal pressure. Vaseline is also used on cuts and impact areas to make the skin more elastic and slippery, which reduces the chances of ripping.
Hematoma
A punch to the face crushes the skin against the facial bone, smashing the tissue between them. Blood vessels beneath the skin can rupture without causing harm to the skin, allowing blood to flow into the underlying tissues, causing swelling or a hematoma.
The skin around the eye is usually injured, resulting in a “black eye.” The swelling in this area can be severe, obstructing the boxer’s eyesight in some cases. The swelling will stop growing after the pressure in the hematoma equalizes the pressure in the blood vessels.
Applying ice and external pressure to the swelling is the main treatment. The blood arteries will be constricted, which will prevent any additional bleeding into the tissues. This injury will take 5 to 7 days to recover. During the healing process, the underlying blood breaks down, causing the hematoma to change color from reddish to blue, black, and finally brown.
Head Cuts
In boxing, the most common cut is on the bony prominence of the head. It’s usually caused by a headbutt, although it can also be caused by the gloves. The skin above the bony prominence is squeezed to the point of rupture with a direct impact on the bony prominence. This prominence is more obvious in some boxers, resulting in repetitive trauma in that area. The eyebrows and cheeks both have these prominences.
When blood vessels are severed by a cut, blood drips or squirts depending on whether the incision is in a vein or an artery. When a head artery is entirely cut, the ends of the artery retract after a while, and bleeding ceases. During the one-minute pause between rounds in boxing, this recovery must be aided.
Because the boxer is highly warmed up, his heart is racing, and his blood pressure is high during a bout, bleeding is frequently profuse. Although the cut may appear to cause a lot of blood to spill, the amount of blood lost is usually insignificant and does not affect the boxer’s performance or cause shock.
When the cut man notices that his boxer has been cut, he must prepare himself before the one-minute interval by soaking a Q-tip in adrenaline (1/1000) from a freshly opened ampoule and placing the stick between the back of his fingers or between his lips. (Using anything other than adrenaline to stop the bleeding from a wound is against the regulations.) He then holds gauze in both hands and waits for the rounds to finish. As soon as the bell rings, he leaps into the ring and applies direct pressure to the cut for at least 20 seconds with the gauze in one hand.
While one hand applies pressure to the cut, the other can clean up the blood that has spilled on other regions of the face. After 20 seconds, the gauze is removed from the incision, the cut is divided, and the adrenaline Q-tip is inserted into the cut, followed by another 20 seconds of pressure. Vaseline can be placed to the cut’s surface just before the bell sounds to signal the start of the following round.
After the Fight
Treating a cut after the competition is dependent on its location and depth. Any cut that requires suturing should be treated in a hospital, where the environment is sanitary and the medical team has the necessary equipment and lights to complete the surgery.
Boxers must have cuts closed properly and correctly because if they don’t, they’re more likely to get cut in the same spot again. Some people cut easier than others, which is mainly owing to their face structure and the fact that their super-orbital ridges protrude more than others.
The most important thing is that the initial cut is properly sewed up or closed – it could be with glue or Steri-Strips – and that it is done as quickly as possible after the fight. Waiting till the next day is not a good idea; you want to get it done as soon as possible so that it heals properly. You want it done in a clean environment where any Vaseline can be cleaned out of the cut and then it’s sewn up with a decent quality material or glued together or Steri-Stripped together in an area with plenty of light so the person doing it can see what they’re doing, such as a hospital or clinical setting.
Contusions and abrasions
Injuries such as contusions and abrasions are common in boxing.
A doctor’s examination is required since there could be damage to underlying tissues such as muscle and bone. Abrasions and contusions normally heal quickly. Epistasis is the medical term for nose bleeding. When the delicate web of blood vessels on the inside of the nose is ruptured by a punch to the nose, this happens.
Applying pressure for a few minutes while also applying ice to the area and the forehead is an efficient treatment. The blood vessels contract and the bleeding tends to stop as a result of the cold application. To halt the bleeding, a swab drenched with adrenaline (1/1000) is placed inside the nostril. If a boxer has a nasal bone injury, he should be examined for fractures, and depending on the severity of the injury, extra treatment may be required.
Vaseline Before A Fight
The cutman in the corner will typically apply a few dabs of Vaseline in key areas of the boxer’s face to shield him from strikes after the boxing trainer provides him last-minute instructions before squaring off against an opponent.
The substance won’t make power punches any less painful, but it will save some attacks from causing harm to their face. Because of the slickness of Vaseline, punches are more likely to glide off a face rather than fall squarely. It is legal to use the substance, and it is a good technique to protect oneself.
Vaseline is lightly placed all around the eye socket, not just to the brows. This is done to reduce the possibility of receiving very deep cuts around the eye from a gloved punch.
Feel the area around your eye socket. The skin is quite thin throughout. Although a boxing glove provides padding for protection (more for the puncher’s hand than for the target), the flat surface of the glove provides an astonishing amount of friction to whatever it is rubbed against. When that comes into contact with the eye socket, the glove can essentially drag that thin flesh across the sharp edge of the eye socket bone you just felt.
The vaseline adds just enough slipperiness that even a solid hit can slide off, rather than grip and drag the skin across the edge of the bone.
Conclusion
The cutman plays a crucial part in the mending of boxers’ faces. Cutman is that guy who puts vaseline on a fighter’s face before the fight and tries to keep any swelling or bleeding under control during the round breaks. Because he is not a doctor and only has a limited amount of time to treat the fighter, his remedies are limited to advanced first aid.
More serious facial injuries, such as deep cuts or a broken nose, are treated in a hospital with expert medical staff in a sterile setting. When the boxer gets home, all he has to do is keep an eye on the injured site to avoid any bleeding or damage, and, if required, apply cold compresses to the area.
