If you\u2019re still wading into the culture war about whether trans athletes should be allowed to compete, you\u2019re living in the past. You gotta keep up; we\u2019re onto humans fighting robots now.<\/p>\n
Meet Robot Entertainment Kombat, an upstart sports startup that pits human vs. machine\u2026 as long as the California State Athletic Commission doesn\u2019t find out. Founded by Cix Liv, the company has apparently been hosting mixed martial arts-style fights between robots\u2014you know, because the least interesting part of sports is the human element and the best part is the violence.<\/p>\n
What happened here is the robot hit a motor limit in its head. By software design this will \u201ce stop\u201d the robot.<\/p>\n
This is just a design choice, the head on these robots is entirely cosmetic and does nothing yet (not even vision).<\/p>\n
In other words, double tab the chest. pic.twitter.com\/LtHbGsswSp<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 CIX \ud83e\uddbe (@cixliv) August 23, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n According to Lix\u2019s LinkedIn, he\u2019s been hosting \u201chumanoid\u201d fights<\/a>, which pit two bots remotely controlled by real people against each other, since September of last year. But last month, his REK took it a step further by placing a person in the ring against a robot. That bot was still controlled remotely rather than acting autonomously, so the fight was really closer to human vs. human with a body that doesn\u2019t experience pain\u2014which, to whatever extent it\u2019s compelling, it\u2019s in a Jackass way rather than a sports way.<\/p>\n Our robots aura farming humans now. Emoted on him at the end. pic.twitter.com\/u5qW1sCQmu<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 CIX \ud83e\uddbe (@cixliv) September 22, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n The battle was hosted September 18 in San Francisco, according to the New York Times<\/a>, and took place in a warehouse with about 100 people in attendance, rabid to see either blood or oil, whatever got spilled first. The human, as you might expect, was bested, getting sent to the mat in each match, and they eventually left the event with a hand injury.<\/p>\n The fight apparently got the attention of the California State Athletic Commission\u2014which regulates all boxing, kickboxing, and mixed martial arts events in the state\u2014which sent a cease-and-desist to REK, per the Times<\/a>, informing the startup that the fights weren\u2019t sanctioned and they would need to get approval before hosting any fight involving a human. Penalty for failure to comply would result in a misdemeanor, which tells you about how much bite the commission has been given.<\/p>\n This video is dedicated to the AI safety kids pic.twitter.com\/mgtOVBFQ29<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 CIX \ud83e\uddbe (@cixliv) September 20, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n Liv, who seemingly has been desperately trying to make some sort of futuristic sport stick for the majority of his career, dismissed the letter and told the Times, \u201cThe law clearly states that a \u2018match\u2019 is between two persons,\u201d which is a pretty weasely dodge for a tough guy, but hey, you gotta know when to play defense and when to attack.<\/p>\n Per his LinkedIn, Liv previously tried to launch REK as an augmented reality fighting league set in the metaverse where you could \u201cwatch people hadouken\u201d each other. He had a number of other virtual reality and mixed reality efforts before landing on robot fighting, and he seems pretty all-in on it, telling the Times, \u201cWe\u2019re going to democratize MMA so we can essentially experience the blood sport without anyone getting hurt.\u201d<\/p>\n Our robot fights were too dangerous, so we put swords on them. pic.twitter.com\/ogbU4JD1Iy<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 CIX \ud83e\uddbe (@cixliv) October 7, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n Liv and his company REK seem set to continue hosting these fights, albeit without the metal-on-flesh element. They have a \u201cdeathmatch<\/a>\u201d planned for later this month that will pit two robots remotely controlled by humans against each other. The gimmick this time around, though, is that the bots will be equipped with weapons<\/a>, which REK is claiming will be a first-of-its-kind fight. Apparently someone didn\u2019t grow up with BattleBots<\/a>.<\/p>\n