In the 2011 movie Real Steel, starring Hugh Jackman, boxing has evolved into fights between robots rather than human fighters. The movie was set in the 2020s.
In June 2026, REK (Robot Entertainment Kombat), a company known for its robot-fighting events, unveiled a new fighting robot in San Francisco. And it is terrifying.
“We’ve been fighting robots for a little bit more than a year,” a person named Cix of REK told ABC 7 News. “Last time we talked we were down at the gym on Van Ness. Those were four and a half feet tall, today we’re upgrading to 6 feet.”
He also added, “It’s not going to be making your dishes that’s for sure. It’s like a motorized bat. If you were hit by a bat going 100 miles per hour that’s what it would be like to get hit by one of these.”
Cix isn’t joking either. In newly released footage, smaller robots spar in a boxing ring until a six-foot-tall robot walks into the arena. That’s when they all stop. Presumably in awe.
“Effectively, humanoid robot fights are the robot equivalent of car racing,” Cix said.
The company wants to ‘bring science fiction to life’
According to Cix, the company’s goal is to bring science fiction to life, and the new location in a previously empty San Francisco storefront is expected to offer a range of services related to humanoid robots.
“The REK shop here you’ll be able to repair humanoids, be able to buy humanoids, rent them, and then we will also do classes so for the first time you’ll be able to see a humanoid robot and figure out how to walk it and how to program it,” Cix said.
“It’s effectively like Mortal Kombat blew out of a video game console and went into a piece of metal,” said Cix. Or Real Steel.
If all of that isn’t scary enough, last year, Cix uploaded a video of one of their humanoid robots thrashing violently in the lab after an operator made a mistake.