A man beat the robots in a cage, and California deemed it illegal

On September 18, 2026, in San Francisco, blogger Frankie LaPenna stepped into a cage against three humanoid robots. The machines were remotely controlled by a human operator, Nick. The company REK (Robot Entertainment Kombat) called the show "the first-ever human-versus-robot fight," and the videos on YouTube gathered more than 10 million views.

The fights took place separately from one another, in MMA style. LaPenna, 5 feet 6 inches tall and 205 pounds, fought in spiked gloves, a helmet and protective gear. He confidently outmatched his first opponent. The second robot was inspired by "The Terminator": 6 feet, 200 pounds, a striking force of 850 pounds.

This machine kicked LaPenna hard several times, and from one of the strikes it fell on its own and lost its head. In the third fight the blogger got tired and asked to stop the bout. "He doesn't get tired. He doesn't stay down," he said after the fight about the robot, which, by his words, kept getting up all the time.

According to Liv, the blogger himself asked to be given such opponents and signed a full waiver of claims, but "we actually didn't want to harm him." The only injury the head of REK named was that LaPenna slightly hurt his hand by hitting metal.

On September 23, the California Athletic Commission sent the organizers an order: any boxing or mixed fight involving a human in the state requires the commission's prior approval, and holding such an event without a license or permit is an offense. The California Department of Consumer Affairs said that events without sanction are unacceptable.

The head of REK, Tsiks Liv, is not discouraged. In his opinion, the law speaks of "two people," and a robot is not a human, and let the court prove that actuators too can be considered persons. He also wrote that the company has for now returned to robot-versus-robot fights, although it plans to hold human-versus-humanoid bouts again, possibly in Vegas.

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Translation editor: Салтанов А.