ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a moral defense of MMA based on the concepts of friendship, autonomy, and mutual consent. It is in part a reply to Dixon, who argues that mutual consent is insufficient to ethically justify the pain and injury MMA fighters intentionally inflict upon each other, and the way opponents are objectified, degraded, and held in contempt. His argument is based on the Kantian principle to treat others as ends in themselves and not merely as means. This directive is breached in the extreme when one sees MMA opponents pummeling each other mercilessly until one taps out or the referee stops the fight. This chapter utilizes Dixon’s discussion of BDSM, where the infliction of pain is morally permissible in the context of a loving relationship. The argument here shows that friendship between opponents can be a moral framework to engage in MMA by mutual consent, making the sport morally defensible.
