March 2025

February 2025

Ray Klerck nose-dives into the hidden consequences behind a broken schnoz's because sometimes it’s not just your face that takes the hit, it’s your entire body. 

UFC 312 ended with a bang - specifically, the whisper of Sean Strickland’s nose detonating across his face. He didn’t laugh or playfully stick his tough out. He didn’t flinch. He just kept pushing forward, brushing off this occupational hazard. As the world watched in awe when he pushed his schnoz back into place like an IKEA flat pack, the real story is what happens next. A broken nose is more than just a cosmetic disaster - it’s a physiological and psychological ticking time bomb set to rewire everything from airflow to aggression, endurance, and equilibrium. 

MORE THAN A FLESH WOUND

A nose left to look like a bag of smashed crabs means resetting your phone’s Face ID feature, but also impacts other aspects of your life. These include the likes of breathing, smell and even brain health. Research from JAMA and Archives Journals shows minimally invasive and open approaches can successfully repair nasal fractures, but picking the wrong repair method may lead to long-term issues. The research highlights that fixing broken noses is highly subjective, even among the world’s top medical professionals. They estimate that 9% of cases need to be revised because of the problems they can cause down the line. Strickland’s nose was broken in six places - meaning the mid-fight reset approach might not be enough to prevent some nasty health complications.

BREATHING: THE INVISIBLE HANDICAP

A fighter’s gas tank isn’t just cardio - it’s about getting oxygen to the working muscles, and a busted nose is like crimping a garden hose mid-fight. A guy like Strickland built his fight cred on relentless forward pressure, but a busted nose is a direct hit to endurance. An Archives of Facial Plastic Surgery study found improperly healed nasal fractures can cause permanent airway obstruction, limiting oxygen intake and sending cardiovascular efficiency into free fall. Less air means faster fatigue, slower reactions, and a gas tank that empties like a beer keg at an afterparty. It may even offer a handicap to your heart health because new research outlined how people who can nose breath tend to have lower blood pressure. This results in better heart health in the long term, so being a constant mouth breather can negatively impact your longevity. A broken nose isn’t just a battle scar. It might be a career timebomb that keeps ticking long after the fight is over.

YOUR NOSE AND YOUR BRAIN ARE CLOSE FRIENDS

Busted noses might look like you lost a fight to a steering wheel, but they also offer a ride share to bacteria looking to hitch a ride into your control center. Research from Griffith University found when the nasal lining gets damaged, bacteria can waltz right in through the olfactory nerve like uninvited party crashers. And these aren’t just your run-of-the-mill germs. Some, like Burkholderia pseudomallei, can cause melioidosis, a savage disease that messes with the central nervous system. Even worse, this bacterial joyride has been linked to the buildup of amyloid beta protein, a key player in Alzheimer’s disease. Translation: smashing your nose isn’t just a short-term problem - it might be the express lane to brain fog, infections, and long-term cognitive damage. So, the next time someone says a broken nose is just part of the fight game, it’s also a potential RSVP to early dementia.

Credit: Alexandre Schneider / Zuffa LLC

THE INHERENT RISK CULTURE OF MMA

In MMA, broken bones are a Tuesday, but toughness doesn’t fix the whistle when you breathe. Injuries are often a wearable trophy, but that mindset comes at a cost. A study published in Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise, and Health found MMA fighters view pain and injury as an expected cost of competing, often soldiering through the damage without proper treatment. The study highlights how MMA injuries are too frequently framed as tests of masculinity, leading many fighters to downplay their severity and rely on makeshift medical care rather than professional intervention. Sean Strickland’s silver lining remark about his nose being so broken that it’s easier to reset fits this culture perfectly. But the reality? Ignoring nasal fractures isn’t a mark of being a hard man - it’s reckless. Long-term breathing issues, increased concussion risk due to facial structural changes, and even disrupted sleep patterns can add up, robbing fighters of the very endurance and resilience they rely on. In short, treating facial injuries like war medals might earn respect in the gym, but they can be a fast track to a shorter, rougher career.

CAN IT ALTER PERFORMANCE LONG-TERM?

The short answer: Absolutely.

Long answer: Oh, it’s probably much worse than you think. A study published in The Journal of Laryngology & Otology tracked patients with nasal fractures over three years and found that even after treatment, 10% still struggled with breathing issues, while nearly 16% developed secondary deformities. These were things such as persistent nasal blockages, crooked airflow, and an unexpected side gig as a human whistle. The real kicker? Many didn’t notice how much their performance had dipped until it was too late. Impaired breathing means less oxygen intake, which creates faster fatigue. That signature relentless pressure many fighters are known for? It suddenly becomes a sprint instead of a marathon. Add in the increased risk of sinus infections, chronic headaches, and potential long-term neurological implications, and you’re looking at more than just an inconvenient sniffle. All of the above is relevant in theory, but what about in practice? Every fighter will probably get their nose broken at some point, and they’ll often brush these side effects aside. However, those who repair it might benefit. Dricus du Plessis got nose surgery in 2023. It was something fellow middleweights like Robert Whittaker called weird, but Dricus proved them wrong and has gone unbeaten since his procedure.

Credit: Brandon Magnus / Zuffa LLC

FRONT AND CENTER

Many fighters like Merab Dvalishvili and Sean Strickland have built their careers on never backing down and moving forward no matter how much their faces are rearranged. Toughness might get you through a fight, but it won’t outpace the physiological reality of what happens when your nose has been folded like a lawn chair one too many times. The average person takes around 20,000 breaths per day, most of which go entirely unnoticed. But when a nose heals wrong, every single one of those breaths becomes a fight of its own. Less airflow means less oxygen to the muscles, which means slower reactions, faster fatigue, and a slightly diminished ability. Fighters like Jack Della Maddalena, who have left their nasal fractures untreated, might be asking for trouble later on. When these injuries don’t heal correctly or are left untreated, they can cause chronic headaches, sinus pressure, and nerve sensitivity. So, what’s next? Should guys like Strickland follow the Dricus du Plessis route and get his nose surgically repaired, potentially coming back stronger? Or he could do what so many fighters before him have done - shrug it off, keep pushing forward, and let his body stack up debts it may not be able to repay. Either way, the war isn’t over. It’s just shifted to a new battlefield: his own biology.