Slice v. Thompson's Cauliflower Ear

I know at least three people were watching the Elite MMA fights on Saturday, May 31st. The "main event" of the mixed martial arts competition (Elite) was Kimbo Slice (street brawler) and James Thompson (British freestyler). However, the main event to my eyes wasn't just the fight itself, but Thompson's massive alien cauliflower ear. For those of you not familiar with boxing, wrestling, martial arts, read below:

From Wikipedia " Cauliflower ear (also hematoma auris or perichondrial hematoma) is a condition most common around wrestlers, MMA, etc. It is caused by the cartilage separating from the overlying perichondrium due to a blow, etc. that is its source of nutrients, causing the cartilage to die. This leads to a formation of fibrous tissue in the overlying skin. When this happens, the outer ear becomes permanently swollen and deformed, thus resembling a cauliflower.

Here is an example of cauliflower ear:



Note the enlarged portion of the ear. Thompson's cauliflower ear stole the, er, cage. Everytime he received a hit from Slice, it would wiggle and shake. It got to the point in the final round of the fight (I'll discuss that shortly), that I was cringing every time it shook, and jokes were made that it would burst and ooze pus from it...or, per Ed, noxious gas to knock out Slice.

The fight was stopped in the final round. Why was it stopped? Well the referee or doctor has the ability to stop the fight. Within a matter of 4 or 5 unanswered punches, the ref called the fight. It was after the first unanswered punch to the side of the head (where a prior injury had already existed - see cauliflower ear), that blood started streaming from his ear.

Now, the M.D. in me said, "blood from ear" most common cause is an ear drum injury or damage to his ear caused by the punch. Some more serious diagnoses not to be messed with are head and brain injuries. THIS combined with the unanswered hits was the reason why the ref stopped the fight.