The five leagues of humanoid robot fighting, explained
Who runs what, on which machines, for how much money — the map of a sport that did not exist two years ago.
Two years ago this sport did not exist. Today there are five distinct properties staging humanoid robot fights, on three continents, with almost no overlap in format, hardware or philosophy. This is the map.
IRON FIST KING (Unitree, Hangzhou) is where it started: a one-off exhibition on 25 May 2025, four child-size G1 robots, human operators, the world's first robot boxing tournament. Not a league — the big bang.
URKL (EngineAI, Shenzhen) is the first real league. One standard machine for everyone — EngineAI's full-size T800 — hybrid human-machine control, judged on engineering criteria as much as damage, a 10 million yuan prize pool and a solid gold belt. Over 200 teams entered the 2026 season, including Stanford and Tsinghua; the final is expected in Dubai.
CYBERHERO (Hero Esports, debuting in Riyadh) is the entertainment play: the same T800 hardware as URKL, but driven by professional Street Fighter players, staged as a two-hour show with a DJ. Asia's largest esports company treating robot fighting as esports with a physical avatar.
THE WORLD HUMANOID ROBOT GAMES (Beijing) are the Olympics of this world — fighting is one discipline among 51, in three weight classes, alongside sprints where robots now beat human world records. The 2026 edition drew 666 teams from 16 countries.
REK (San Francisco) is the American counterculture version: VR-piloted Unitree G1s, nightclub venues, UFC fighters in the headset, a sold-out national tour, and a storefront that rents fighting machines. Planning its own league on six-foot, 200-pound purpose-built robots.
Five properties, three models — engineering contest, entertainment product, national showcase — and none of them older than eighteen months. Whoever wins, the sport has stopped being hypothetical. This site keeps the record: every league, every event, every result we can verify, in English.