Summary:
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A man fought a 6-foot humanoid robot and lost in a kickboxing match in San Francisco. The robot won.
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The humanoid robot, EngineAI T800, kicked the man, Frankie LaPenna, across the cage during the fight. Spectators watched.
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The fight between the man and the robot was not autonomous, but controlled remotely as part of a virtual reality combat game.
A man stepped into a fighting cage with a 6-foot humanoid robot, and the robot came out on top.
Robotics startup REK staged the human-versus-humanoid kickboxing demonstration in San Francisco on Friday, Sept. 18, putting creator Frankie LaPenna inside a cage with the machine. The opponent was the 80-kilogram (176-pound) EngineAI T800, a humanoid built to look like the Terminator.
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LaPenna, wearing a helmet and chest protector, landed a few punches before the robot kicked him in the head, according to the official video description. Footage shows the robot kicking him across the cage as spectators outside the ring looked on.
“We just made history with the first Human VS Terminator robot fight,” REK posted on X on Sept. 20, adding that more fight footage is coming.
The “first” label comes from REK and LaPenna and has not been independently verified.
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The robot was not fighting on its own. REK’s robots are not autonomous fighters, and the event showcased remote control and mechanical stability rather than independent combat strategy. The bout was part of REK’s work on a virtual reality combat game in which people remotely control humanoid robots to compete against each other.
REK founder Cix Liv came to robotics from virtual reality and is building a sport that links virtual competition to physical machines. The LaPenna match pushed his format beyond the company’s usual robot-versus-robot fights.
Online, viewers debated whether a trained fighter would fare better, with some predicting human-versus-robot bouts could reach the UFC within five years.
