California orders REK to stop human-versus-robot fights
The California State Athletic Commission's cease-and-desist, dated 23 September, bars unsanctioned contests involving a human — not robot-only fights. REK argues a match needs two persons, and stages a robot-only bladed 'Deathmatch' in San Francisco tonight.
California has told REK to stop putting humans in a cage with its robots.
The California State Athletic Commission sent the San Francisco promotion a cease-and-desist letter dated 23 September, signed by executive officer Andy Foster and headed "UNSANCTIONED HUMAN VERSUS HUMANOID ROBOT CAGE FIGHT". REK's founder Cix Liv made it public on X on 30 September with the caption "We made it boys" — which is why some outlets date it to the 30th.
The fight that triggered it is on this record: on 18 September in San Francisco, an EngineAI T800 piloted by REK knocked down the boxer and YouTuber Frankie LaPenna. The clip went around the world in at least six languages.
What the letter orders is narrower than the headlines. It is addressed to anyone holding, promoting, advertising or sponsoring unsanctioned human-versus-robot fights, and tells them to stop staging any boxing or mixed martial arts contest involving a human in California without the commission's approval. It says nothing about robots fighting robots. The commission's line, as quoted: "Unsanctioned activity puts the physical and financial well-being of all those involved at risk."
Which statute the letter rests on is reported inconsistently, so this record is not printing a section number until the letter itself can be read in full.
Liv's answer is a legal argument rather than a retreat: "The law clearly states that a 'match' is between two persons." His position is that a contest with only one person in it is not a match the commission regulates — and he has said he would welcome regulators trying to prove in court that a humanoid robot counts as a person. Korean coverage citing the New York Times reports that REK has no plans for another human-versus-robot fight.
That makes California the second US state on this record to put the question in writing, from the opposite direction. Wyoming's synthetic-combatant framework set out how such a fight could be sanctioned; California's letter says an unsanctioned one cannot happen.
REK, meanwhile, is going the other way with the robots. Its "Deathmatch" is tonight, 9 October, in San Francisco: robot against robot only, with arm-mounted blades — Liv's summary is that the fights "were too dangerous, so we put swords on them". The card runs a G1 weapons fight, a T800 fight, and a main event of Rektile against T-REK. Results here when there is a source for them.