My humble opinions and observations:
The blood visible in the photographs is consistent with either a grazing hit or with the results of a condition that both he and I suffer from that causes bloody tears of the skin (I got one from pulling up a tight sleeve on my left arm).
There is no blood visible on any of the cotton gauze patches on his ear in the following days (mine took a week to stop bleeding whenever I removed the bandage).
It wasn't staged, AND advantage was taken of the incident to exaggerate the effects.
I will not address in this response any of the multiple posts to FB or X or whatever your favorite letters that raised alternative theories, including detailed photographic evidence (perhaps real, perhaps faked in whole or part).