World's first human vs robot MMA fight has happened in San Francisco and the footage is wild

A humanoid robot has just stepped into a boxing cage for an MMA fight with a human in San Francisco, and the video looks like it came straight from Terminator.

Content creator Frankie LaPenna faced off against a six-foot humanoid called Rekbot in a bizarre matchup organized by robotics company REK.

The machine was dressed up to look particularly intimidating, complete with a Terminator-style head, before the pair started trading blows.

Then the bot landed a kick that sent LaPenna flying across the cage.

The robot landed some seriously wild kicks in this MMA fight

The futuristic fight took place on September 18, with content creator Frankie LaPenna entering the cage wearing protective gear, boxing gloves, and a helmet.

The footage showed him throwing several punches at Rekbot, although the humanoid robot appeared relatively unfazed by the attacks.

Things got much more dramatic when the bot started responding with kicks.

One particularly powerful-looking strike sent LaPenna backwards across the cage and onto the floor.

REK described the event as its first ‘Human VS Terminator robot fight‘ and said it had made history with the matchup.

The company was using the fight to promote its wider vision for bot combat, including a virtual reality game in which humans can remotely control humanoid robots and compete against each other.

That last detail is pretty important, though, because Rekbot wasn’t actually an autonomous AI fighter.

The robot was being controlled

Despite how futuristic the footage looked, the humanoid was being controlled remotely by a human operator.

That means this wasn’t an AI independently deciding how to fight a person, instead, the operator was controlling the robot’s movements, with the machine’s physical hardware delivering the punches and kicks in the MMA fight.

The robot used for the event has been identified as an EngineAI T800, a full-size humanoid robot designed to walk, run, jump, kick and recover from falls.

EngineAI lists the T800 at around 1.73 meters tall and between 75 and 85 kilograms depending on its configuration.

REK’s idea is essentially to turn humanoid robots into something people can pilot and fight with remotely, making this strange San Francisco showdown more of a glimpse at a potential new form of entertainment than an actual AI uprising; it’s like a real-life Street Fighter game.

Still, watching a human-sized machine kick a person across an MMA cage is pretty scary.

We just made history with the first Human VS Terminator robot fight.

Frankie LaPenna gave it his all 🥊 More fight footage coming soon! pic.twitter.com/iADpv9d8Wg

— REK (@REK) September 20, 2026

And REK has already teased that this might not be the last time we see Rekbot in action, saying that the bot ‘wasn’t even the final boss’ and hinting that more is coming soon.

This is one of those situations where we genuinely have no idea what is coming next.