LaPenna breaks hand fighting a T800-style robot, California orders REK to stop

LaPenna breaks hand fighting a T800-style robot, California orders REK to stop

According to one account, US internet personality Frankie LaPenna broke his hand fighting a modified EngineAI T800 listed at 182 centimeters and 90 kilograms during a San Francisco card staged by REK, winning that bout after the robot lost its balance and later losing to a third machine described as similar to a Unitree H2 after exhaustion, with some spectators saying the T800 showed limited techniques and suggesting capabilities were disabled for safety.

REK describes its setup as hybrid control, with a human pilot driving the robot through a VR headset or game controller while software assists with balance and runs trained motion patterns rather than full autonomy, and one report says the promotion has used mostly modified EngineAI T800s and Unitree G1s against human fighters.

Singapore runs its first humanoid boxing tournament under full teleoperation

Singapore hosted what organizers describe as the first boxing tournament with humanoid robots, with every punch and movement directed by a human controller rather than any hybrid or autonomous system. The card split into a lightweight division with robots at 1.32 meters and 35 kilograms and a heavyweight division at 1.73 meters and 75 kilograms, and organizers framed it less as a scored sport than as a stress test of speed, strength and reaction time.

KATENA chief executive Antonio Guy said the fights were meant to show which robot models perform better under fast, high-force conditions, while martial arts instructor Lucas Lieser noted that human control introduces error and unpredictability, since a mistimed punch can draw an immediate counter. One robot sustained slight damage during the event, which some spectators treated as a normal outcome of testing while others voiced concern about where the technology is heading.

Organizers of the Singapore event say it is part of a growing international series of humanoid robot competitions, with similar tournaments already being planned in other major cities around the world.

China opens entries for its 10th Intelligent Robot Fighting and Competitive Games

Registration has opened for the 10th China Intelligent Robot Fighting and Competitive Games, a mecha-combat and engineering-education event that began in 2017. The combat side covers five divisions: wheel-based robot fighting in A and B groups and humanoid fighting in A, B and C groups, with bouts held in a standard ring decided by technical knockout or strategy points.

The broader event also includes embodied-intelligence contests testing physical-world perception, decision-making and interaction, drone competitions tied to low-altitude economy work such as inspection and rescue, and an open innovation track where teams design their own combat or competition concepts. Everything runs on a three-tier ladder from campus qualifiers to a national preliminary and national final, with schools required to hold internal trials, national qualifiers capped at 50% of a school's campus entries per event, and a 500 yuan per-team fee charged only once teams reach the national preliminary, with no added cost for the final.

Teams that clear eligibility checks must upload complete entries between October 1 and October 20, 2026, under their assigned tracks and either the undergraduate or vocational group. National preliminaries are judged online by experts, with undergraduate and vocational teams scored and awarded separately, and some national finalists will receive direct entry into the 2027 China University Intelligent Robot Creativity Competition final. There is no individual registration; every team must advance through a school-run campus trial first.

China's robot makers push embodied intelligence from factory floors to food stalls

At Shanghai's industrial fair this month, embodied-intelligence robots moved beyond dancing and manufacturing demos into commercial-service tasks: machines picked medicine in pharmacy settings, prepared cold noodle dishes from ingredient handling to plating, and performed oral surgery demonstrations.

Research firm IDC estimates roughly 25,000 humanoid robots shipped worldwide in the first half of 2026, more than four times the total from a year earlier, with over 95% of those units coming from Chinese manufacturers. AGIBOT, founded in 2023, is estimated to have shipped more than 8,600 of those units, built across bipedal, small, wheeled and quadruped product lines aimed at factories, commercial sites, research and education.

According to its chief executive, AGIBOT's revenue climbed from about 300,000 yuan in 2023 to more than 60 million yuan in 2024 and then past 1 billion yuan in 2025. The company also builds its own control models and data platforms and works with local governments and state-owned firms.