I don't get in physical fights, and I'm not doing anything directly competitive with my life at the moment, but looking back on times when I was, I never was mean to someone because I wanted to start a fight with that person. Usually it's just about defending myself or expressing my opinion...I can think of a few times when I was the bad guy, and looking back, I regret my lack of self control because two times, the same thing happened. Burned bridges with someone it would have been better to keep as a friend, just because I felt like it.
You can keep your code of honor, but I'll agree with it in the sense that I've learned that losing control like that rarely leads to positive results.