UFC 127 Aftermath: BJ Penn Hides His Face After 3rd Round Beating from Jon Fitch

Wearing sunglasses to conceal a black eye is a time-honored tradition.

In everyday life, people who get a black eye conceal it with sunglasses to hide the evidence of having been in a fight.

But in everyday life, the circumstances resulting in a black eye are often embarrassing, tragic, or shame-worthy.

So why do professional fighters do it?

Boxers have done it for years.

Tito Ortiz is relatively famous for it.

After losses to Georges St. Pierre, Frank Edgar and Jon Fitch, BJ Penn has felt the need to don a nice, thick-rimmed set of shady black glasses.

I scoured the Internet searching for legitimate medical reasons as to fighters might wear sunglasses at night and it turns out that Corey Hart's explanation is as good as any.

Which leads back to the only real answer there ever was: fighters don't want people to see their black eyes. It's all about pride.

In that way, I find the whole thing a little bit amusing.

If a fighter is wearing sunglasses, we already know that the black eye is there without having to see it.

Wearing sunglasses doesn't conceal black eyes, but merely draws attention to them.

Of course, I guess black eyes are ugly.

Maybe fighters just want to spare us the pain of having to see the physical damage, so that we can go on with our lives thinking that the physical consequences of fighting end once the fight is done.

After all, it would be a bit nuts for a fighter to just walk into the press conference, with a bloody and battered face, as if to say, "Yeah, I got my butt kicked tonight, but I'm still here."