The people

Pilots

Almost every bout in this sport is driven by a person. Their names are reported far less often than the machines', which is backwards — so this is the index of everyone the record can name.

The single most common misconception about humanoid fighting is that the robots are doing it themselves. Mostly they are not. Iron Fist King’s four Unitree G1s were fully remote-piloted, their movement trained from motion capture of professional kickboxers. UFB pilots use game controllers, and can drive from a browser. The 2026 World Humanoid Robot Games took the distinction seriously enough to halve the score of any teleoperated machine.

Where a pilot’s name has never been published — which is most of the time, because Chinese coverage of a team tournament names the team and not the operator — there is nothing here to list. That gap is itself one of this sport’s open questions.