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World’s first robot martial arts tournament throws down in China

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China just held the first-ever robot-only martial arts tournament, where machines could be seen kicking and throwing punches at each other.

Earlier this year, we saw a humanoid model of a robot patrolling the streets, which reminded us all of Robocop.

With technology only advancing, it seemed only a matter of time until we could finally see robots fighting each other. On May 25, 2025, our wish came true. China held the first-ever robot fighting tournament in Hangzhou, Zhejiang.

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The tournament had Unitree’s G1 model, which weighed 35 kilograms and was 132 centimeters tall, pitted against each other in a boxing ring.

China has just held the first-ever robot kickboxing tournament

Broadcast by China Central Television, the fights during the China Media Group (CMG) World Robot Competition lasted three rounds and were scored based on hits on the head or body. Landing one punch was equivalent to scoring one point, while a kick gave three points.

Five points would be deducted if the robots fell. On the other hand, if they couldn’t get up within eight seconds of being knocked down, they’d lose 10 points, and the round would immediately end.

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When it came to the actual fight, these machines were actually controlled by humans via remotes and voice commands. As seen in the footage from the broadcast, they’re capable of punching, kicking, and doing uppercuts. Think of it as an evolved Robot Wars from the early 2000s.

However, it’s safe to say that their overall movement isn’t the smoothest just yet; some lost their balance after walking backward or kicking. Ultimately, out of four robots, one operated by Chinese tech influencer Lu Xin ended up winning.

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Speaking to CCTV, Unitree director Wang Qixin said teaching robots different movements is “not easy.

“We used artificial intelligence (AI) technology to train them. First, we captured the data of the movements of some professional kick-boxing athletes, and then the robots can learn these movements in the virtual world,” he explained. 

Despite the overall challenge, this won’t be the last time we’ll see something like this. The EngineAI Robot Free Combat Tournament was also announced and will be held in December. According to the organizers, this time around, the event will test not only the robots’ physical limits but also their intelligence levels.

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China has held the world's first robot martial arts tournament and I can't think of a single thing that could possibly go wrong
Product Reviews

China has held the world’s first robot martial arts tournament and I can’t think of a single thing that could possibly go wrong

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The world’s first humanoid robot boxing match – YouTube

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We can surely all agree there’s absolutely nothing to be concerned about when it comes to robots and AI. So, it makes perfect sense to hold what’s claimed to be the world’s first martial arts tournament for robots. It’s all completely harmless fun and games, nothing that remotely brings to mind Cyberdyne Systems Model 101 gone rogue. Nope.

Anyway, the China Media Group World Robot Competition Mecha Fighting Series reportedly kicked off—literally—on May 25 in Hangzhou, China. According to Asia Times, the tournament included Unitree Robotics G1 robots weighing in at 35 kilograms and 132 centimeters tall.

The G1 is actually available to buy from $16,000, just in case you want your own killing machine, sorry friendly household bot, and it comes with 3D LIDAR and two-hour battery life. Inevitably, the robots run AI models trained on data capture of the movements of kickboxers for the tournament, but it’s not clear if that particular mapping is available to Unitree customers. We suspect not.


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Each fight was made up of three rounds of two minutes each, with a punch scoring one point, and a kick three. Five points were deducted for falling over and 10 points if the bot failed to stand up within eight seconds.

Li Gaofeng, a researcher at Zhejiang University’s College of Control Science and Engineering, said, “combat fight is a difficult task for humanoid robots due to the intensive confrontation during the fight. Robots need to mind their movements and react to their opponent’s moves. All these requirements significantly challenge the robots’ algorithms, electronic parts and speed reducers.”

That said, the robots were not fully autonomous. Human operator teams controlled the robots, “in a human-machine collaborative way,” according to Chen Xiyun of Unitree Robotics.

If all this sounds like a robot zombie apocalypse in the making, a quick scan of the Youtube highlights paints a slightly different picture. While some of the moves are impressive, more often the bots are flailing around, punching at thin air or tripping over themselves. It’s more the stuff of comedy than nightmares.

Indeed, human overlords wielding some kind of remote controllers can be seen on the sidelines. So, it seems like the AI element is limited to the specifics of a given kick or punch in response to commands, very much like playing, ya know, a video game. We’re a long way off bots that can do their own fighting thing, if this tournament is anything to go by.

That said, this stuff is undeniably developing fast and probably wouldn’t have been possible at all, even with the existing caveats, a few years ago. Who’s to say these things won’t dancing around and then right out of the ring in a few years, fully capable of a deftly choreographed murderous rampage? What a time to be alive—for as long as you can outrun the robots…



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