Vasco Castela.

When the B.C. Medical Association called for a ban on mixed martial arts on the grounds that the sport is too dangerous due to the risk of brain injury, critics were quick to point out that there is a higher risk of brain damage in other popular sports, such as boxing or hockey. Perhaps the risk argument is misguided. Why should it be anyone’s business what two adults consensually decide to do to each other, regardless of whether we think it is dangerous or weird or kinky? Maybe we should worry more about the people who watch MMA fights. They are being conditioned to feel that it is okay to hit a man when he is down, and keep hitting him until he is unconscious or taps out. And who respects a tap out in a street fight?

There used to be in Manchester, England, an unwritten rule for street fights, which stated that once your opponent is down, you are allowed to kick him in the head three times. It seems fair to suppose that a lot of the people who have been on the receiving end of these kicks were not aware of this rule, and even if they were, perhaps they did not subscribe to the practice and in no way expressed their consent to be kicked in the head should an appropriate situation arise. For rarely do people sit down to discuss the rules by which they will fight, and therein lies the problem.

The Manchester rule probably emerged in a similar way to “The Code” that unofficially regulates hockey fights, as experienced and influential fighters try to strike a balance between the value of gaining respect by intimidating opponents and the need to avoid the escalation of violence. These rules evolve to become codes of honour, and breaking them comes to have all the feel of breaking other moral rules of thumb, such as “Lying is wrong” or “You shall not kill”.

Within the cage, the MMA rules may be adequate. Perhaps an MMA fight often is, as some fans argue, a duel of gentlemen, who are often good friends outside of the cage, and remain good friends after the fight. Unfortunately, MMA rules do not seem to stay in the cage. According to Dr. Louis Francescutti, president-elect of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and emergency medicine physician at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton, trauma victims who have gotten involved in bar brawls and needed medical attention frequently report that they faced ultra-violent aggression and a fighting style similar to that of MMA tournaments, involving a mix of punches and kicks. He has been getting these reports for the last five years, and more frequently in the last two years. Edmonton has been called the MMA “mecca” of Canada.

Strictly speaking, MMA is illegal in Canada, according to Section 83 of the Criminal Code, which describes prize fighting as a punishable offence. Interestingly, boxing is mentioned as an exception. Perhaps this is a mistake, but adding another is not going to help. It is hard to get rid of boxing now, like it is hard to get rid of bullfighting in Spain and Portugal, as they have become a part of people’s lives and culture, and forbidding these activities has a more severe perceived impact on their freedom. The legality of boxing is no justification for making MMA legal.

Boxing is at least more conservative in drawing the line of restraint. In a bar brawl, the boxing fan may still back off when his opponent is off his feet, out of sportsmanship. The MMA fighter or fan will—if we assume that his level of self-control is identical to that of the boxer—stop later in the fight, by virtue of his “code” conditioning, continuing to hit his opponent when he is down. When things go a bit too far, as it often happens in a bar brawl, he is more likely to cause the opponent severe damage. Hockey, which is an important part of Canadian culture, is violent too, of course, but I have never heard of anyone being forced to play hockey in a street fight. There is a context to hockey fights that helps to keep the violence in the rink.

I sympathize, to a degree, with the plight of the fans. The visceral appeal of MMA is understandable, and the vast majority of the fans are law-abiding, responsible citizens, who never get involved in bar brawls or any kind of street fighting. Unfortunately, a few do. And they will break bones, cause brain damage, and kill people who never agreed to a duel by the rules of MMA. This is more important than the fans’ alleged right to watch a good fight. MMA fights should be banned in Canada.

Vasco Castela is an ethicist who lives in Vancouver. He holds a PhD in ethics from the University of Manchester.