why do mixed martial arts fighters put vaseline on their foreheads and cheeks?

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Their all mixed up.

helps lesson the chance of a cut. The leather gloves hitting on dry skin, especialliy in the first round or two has a good chance of opening up.

because when two pieces of skin collide, due to the make-up of the skin the two pieces tend to grab each other. Vaseline causes a hand coming a crossed a fighters face to have no such resistance and instead slide past the face or chest.

Yes, the pertroleum jelly is to lessen the chances of a glancing blow tearing the skin and causing a cut, which can end the fight. When a fighter enters the ring you can see the official not only checks to see that there is vasoline in the correct places, but also that there is NOT vasoline where it shouldn’t be. It’s an old trick to hide a glob of vasoline behind the ears and put lots around the jawline so that it’s easier for a fighter to pull his head out of a choke, which of coarse is cheating. It’s called greasing.

Respect.

They do this for a couple of reasons. First it helps blows to more easily slip or slide off unless they are going to make perfect, direct contact; elbows with their lack of padding and bony, pointy structure really can cause a lot of cuts.. Secondly any glove including boxing gloves have some seam somewhere, stitching somewhere and usually tape covering it. These seams and the tape covering it cause abrasions and cuts and this can stop a fight. MMA type fighting gloves have a lot of seams in the finger area which are not covered with tape. In boxing they also put a little vaseline on the back to keep ring ropes from doing this but in MMA only a slight coat of Vaseline is allowed to be used to cover the face and forehead and none on the body.

Salutations,
Yes it prevents, to a small extent, skin tears. Cheers