ABSTRACT
In MMA, the team or group is a necessary part of the production of fi ghting bodies. Groups once gathered are broken down into dyadic relations in order to practice techniques and for the purpose of sparring. Different bodies bring different bodily dispositions (habitus) and present new challenges for combatants, and as such, it is the qualitative diversity of bodies that matters to the production of fi ghting bodies. The interactions in the club are habitual and, over and above the physical training space, form the basis of what constitutes the club. This is a form of homosociality-nonsexual same-sex relations-insofar that it is primarily male bodies that engage in interactions in the MMA club. The reverential space of the club allows for the specifi c types of associations between primarily male bodies that are otherwise considered unacceptable outside the club. Characteristic of this form of homosociality is a form of homoeroticism that defi es and transgresses the logic of interactions between heterosexual men in public settings. This form of homoeroticism coalesces into dyad-based practices that form and destroy bodies. This chapter will elucidate two dueling practices; one oriented toward creation, and the other oriented toward negation. In pure form, the cultivating duel is a practice that builds bodies, and the duel as negation is dedicated to destroying bodies. Both dueling practices signify MMA masculinity on the combatants’ bodies that perform them. Practices, such as dueling, serve as conduits for performing masculinities and work to naturalize masculinities on the bodies of men and, sometimes, women (Butler 1990; Paechter 2006a, 2006b).
