Boyfriend problems

my boyfriend said that it doesn't feel like we're dating anymore. even though we kiss and hold hands and everything a normal couple would do. he kept saying that we are just friends & saying how much less we would argue if we were just friends. I agree, we do argue a lot but I care about him too much to just be friends with him. he said that we could just be friends & still do everything we do now. like hanging out every weekend and him taking me home from school and us talking and sitting together and everything. it feels like he still wants to be in a relationship with me but doesn't want to call it a relationship. like, maybe he wants me to stay loyal to him but he wants to have his options open with other girls. he's not the type of guy that gets a lot of girls. I'm his 2nd girlfriend. & I said "what if we were just friends and one of us found a girlfriend/boyfriend?" and he said that we could still talk but if my boyfriend wouldn't let me talk to him, then he was gonna beat him up? we're still dating but he said that if we had one more argument then we had to try his idea and just be friends but keep doing what we're doing? I asked what would happen if "just being friends" didn't work out, and he said he didn't know. I care about him so much and I can't just be friends with him.