Oooh, after that haymaker his eye looks bad!

July 24, 2006 6:07 PM

What is being used by the cutman to heal your boxer (reduce swelling) in the video game ESPN Fight Night Round 3?

In ESPN Fight Night Rd. 3, when you are injured your cutman can heal you between rounds. To reduce swelling, he rubs what looks like some sort of block with a handle against your boxer's face. What is this tool? Is it used to reduce swelling "in real life"?

posted by nekton to sports, hobbies, & recreation (9 comments total)

The Cutman's equipment on Wikipedia: "Enswell, sometimes called end-swell, stop-swell or no-swell, is a small piece of metal with a handle. It is traditionally kept on ice and is used to cool the area of a bruise or a cut by applying direct pressure to decrease the blood flow to the area."
also see the section on appearances in popular culture:
"Fight Night Round 2 and Fight Night Round 3 by Electronic Arts allows the player to perform the cutman duties during the breaks between rounds. The player has a very limited time to apply enswell to the bruises and treat cuts with adrenaline-soaked cotton swabs."
posted by slightlybewildered at 6:12 PM on July 24, 2006

"and treat cuts with adrenaline-soaked cotton swabs."

I wonder where the adrenaline comes from?
posted by notyou at 6:44 PM on July 24, 2006

The adrenaline is probably overexpressed in and purified from cultured human cells.
posted by rxrfrx at 6:47 PM on July 24, 2006

Thanks!
posted by nekton at 6:49 PM on July 24, 2006

There's a scene in Cinderella Man where Paul Giamatti uses a silver dollar pulled out of a bucket of ice for the same purpose.
posted by muddgirl at 6:54 PM on July 24, 2006

Adrenaline can be synthesized, and in clinical settings it's referred to as "epinephrine".
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 7:24 PM on July 24, 2006

Trivia: I have heard it hurts like high holy hell.
posted by geoff. at 8:06 PM on July 24, 2006

Having read a little more about this, apparently you aren't supposed to try to rub away the swelling (or redistribute it to other parts of the face), which is exactly what you do in the game.
posted by nekton at 8:09 AM on July 25, 2006

SCDB, if you read that Wikipedia article, it's only in the US that it's primarily referred to as epinephrine.
posted by rxrfrx at 10:20 AM on July 25, 2006