The era of the robots is here.
We’ve seen humanoid bots pull off impressive martial arts choreographies, run faster than the world’s fastest person, tear it up on the dance floor, and face off in the ring against each other.
But — at least beyond a few humans catching stray blows from robots in stunts gone awry — we’d been yet to see a robot contender square off in the ring against a homo sapien fighter.
Until now, that is. A new video making the rounds on social media shows humanoid robot fighting company REK have one of its androids spar with influencer — and major TikTok personality — Frankie LaPenna, who’s known for, among other things, stuffing his shorts to make it look like he has a huge behind. (LaPenna is such a big deal that he recently appeared on NBC‘s “America’s Got Talent,” where it was ultimately determined that he did not.)
“For the first time in history, a human faces off against a six-foot-tall robot,” an announcer exclaims in the video.
“Dude, I’m scared for you man,” one of the match officials tells LaPenna with a laugh.
The 44-second clip shows the heavily padded influencer take swipes at the imposing robot inside a plastic-lined octagon — but to no avail. The brief match has LaPenna getting repeatedly kicked in the chest and midsection, only to be thrown across the ring with one final kick, seemingly ending the fight. (The robot, in a theatrical twist, had been outfitted with a terrifying “Terminator”-like head.)
While we can certainly see at least some entertainment value of having daring human athletes square off with machines, there’s clearly something off with the match. For one, LaPenna clearly struggles to land a proper blow, suggesting he may be pulling his punches and eventually throwing the fight.
And whether the robot really has enough force to throw LaPenna across the entire ring with a simple kick is debatable at best.
“Is this just a showcase or did that robot legit yeet that dude five meters across the ring?” one Reddit user wondered.
“It’s still clumsy… for now,” another added ominously.
Besides, the stocky, 28-year-old influencer is well known for playing the heel in public and is willing to throw himself the line of fire for comedic effect. He recently has shared videos of himself crashing a bike into an office desk, jousting while standing on a boat, and even playing a game of cards in the vicinity of a raging bull.
In other words, the jury is still out on how an actual MMA fighter would fare against a six-foot robot. But considering what they’re going up against, we’d hazard a guess that it wouldn’t exactly be much of a fair fight. For one, humans bruise a whole lot easier than a construct made out of metal and plastic.
More on fighting robots: Scientists Create New Humanoid Robot That Flinches in Fear When You Come Close
The post Behold: Video of “First-Ever” Human Versus Robot MMA Fight appeared first on Futurism.
