Abstract
Within the sporting landscape much has changed from the proliferation and
integration of new technologies, for example, the practice of mixed martial arts (MMA) has
developed on the fringes of modern sport. It combines several martial arts, is practised in a cage,
and allows ground strikes. MMA is presented here within a framework inspired by Norbert
Elias’s theory of civilizing of aggressive impulses through sport. We reviewed more than 20 years of
literature, with 785 international references and a triple analysis of the discipline, those being
physical violence, symbolism, the play impulse.