🥊 License To Thrill

October 13, 2026

By Kim Komando

California regulators weren’t thrilled when a robot fought a human. Naturally, the next idea involved weapons. No humans, thankfully. 

REK billed its October 9 San Francisco Deathmatch as a first-of-its-kind humanoid weapon fight. The card featured robots with blades, a T800 matchup and Rektile versus T-REK. General admission cost $69.

REK Deathmatch: World’s First Humanoid Weapon Fight

Oct 9, San Francisco

6 Foot Robots Fight to the Death https://t.co/vigZd2Uyzq— REK (@REK) October 7, 2026

It’s BattleBots mixed with the Terminator franchise. And because humans remotely pilot REK’s fighters, the mayhem still comes with a flesh-and-blood operator.

We’ve invented gladiator combat for machines. Somewhere, a Roomba is updating its résumé.

Check out the promo here.