They put a human and a Terminator-style robot to fight in an MMA cage (video)

They put a human and a Terminator-style robot to fight in an MMA cage (video)

The content creator Frankie LaPenna has faced a humanoid robot inside a mixed martial arts cage in an exhibition held on September 18 and organized by REKan American company that promotes fights between robots. His rival was a T800 of EngineAI characterized, precisely, as a Terminator. It had a skull-like head and red eyes that were reminiscent of the other T800, the one played by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 1984 film.

LaPenna is an American known for his videos of physical humor and acrobatics on social networks. REK is based in San Francisco and organizes shows with humanoids piloted by peoplein addition to developing a video game that is a simulator so that players can train and manage real robots in their events.

The 44-second video shows LaPenna approaching the humanoid wearing gloves and padded protection. The influencer manages to land several punches before receiving several kicks that move him towards the walls of the cage. The last sequence of the confrontation shows it falling to the ground after another hit from the machine that was being controlled remotely by another person.

Although the montage suggests that the robot won, REK assures that LaPenna continued fighting and ended up defeating him. The company’s CEO explained to the Daily Mail that he ended up tearing down and disassembling the machine.

A T800 that is not a Terminator

The T800 is a humanoid from the Chinese company EngineAI presented in December 2025. Five months later, the company announced the departure of the first batch from its new factory. Shenzhen to start large-scale deliveries.

The official model sheet shows a height of 1.73 metersalthough in combat he was presented at 1.82 m, and weighing between 75 and 85 kilos depending on the version. Your joints reach a maximum torque of 450Nm and incorporates cameras and laser sensors to perceive the environment. The autonomy is between four and five hours and there is a Pro version that offers 29 degrees of freedom in the body and another seven per hand.

Early promotional videos for the T800 sparked accusations that EngineAI used digital visual effects. The fluidity of his kicks and other movements were too realistic, but the company denied this and published images of the filming to respond to suspicions. He later released another video in which his executive director was hit by the robot while wearing protection.

EngineAI presents the T800 as a general purpose robot for industrial and service jobs. Among the applications it proposes are moving loads, sorting objects and delivering items, nothing about having to finish Sarah Connor. The manufacturer wants to take advantage of its strength and the precision of its hands to incorporate it into factories and other work environments.