The world's first fighting league for humanoid robots launched Thursday in Shenzhen City, China's technology hub, drawing over 200 teams from countries including China, the United States, and Singapore.
The event, officially named the Ultimate Robot Knock-out Legend (URKL), places humanoids in an octagon ring to kickbox in front of a roaring crowd.
Among all competitors, only 32 teams advanced to compete for the championship belt and a prize pool of 10 million yuan (approximately USD 1.48 million).
All teams compete using the standardized EngineAI T800 full-sized humanoid robot. Judges evaluate key performance areas, including motion control, balance algorithms, perception decision-making, power systems, and structural protection.
According to Zhao Tongyang, Founder and CEO of Shenzhen-based firm EngineAI, the robots, and the intelligence behind them, are designed not only to withstand physical impacts but also to continue functioning under pressure.
"This kind of competition upgrades everything, sensors, motion control, AI decision-making, neural networks, joint performance, laying the groundwork for home robots in the future," said Zhao.
Another emerging application is companion robots. Shenzhen-based UBtech Robotics is developing robots with lifelike skin, subtle facial expressions, and a so-called "relationship-building" model powered by emotional artificial intelligence.
"Robots doing housework at home? That's five to 10 years away. But right now, we can use large model tech to make robots understand and interact with people better," Michael Tam, chief brand officer of UBtech Robotics, said.
Despite the impressive demonstrations, questions remain about how close these machines are to winning over consumers. Wu Haifeng, director of the Center for Sustainable Finance at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen), pointed out that robots today are far from meeting the needs of a daily user, but he insists that with more funding and smarter minds iterating every day, the gap will gradually close.
Humanoid robot fighting league debuts in Shenzhen
As the world grapples with multiplying crises and a dangerous decline in international trust, a senior Uzbek lawmaker has called for greater unity and multilateral cooperation to tackle shared crises.
Sodiq Safoyev, first deputy chairman of the Senate of the Oliy Majlis (national parliament) of Uzbekistan, said the world is navigating a complex era of "polycrisis" marked by wars, pandemics, and growing division, and that the response should not be to create new dividing lines, but to unite people and act collectively.
"Today we're living in a difficult time worldwide. Even some academicians defined the contemporary world as in a time of polycrisis or simultaneous occurrence of several catastrophic events, indeed, wars, pandemia, fragmentation of the world. And I think that it's a time not to create new division lines, but to unite the people and act together, vis-a-vis global challenges. I think that such an idea, proposed by his Excellency, Chairman [President] Xi Jinping, is very important, because it brings very clear idea that today we need to build cooperation and to think about the next generation's destiny, to save the earth from the challenges which we have," said Safoyev.
Safoyev also pushed back against the notion that deglobalization has taken hold, saying that international trade, information flows, and migration remain unstoppable. However, he warned that rising interconnectedness has been accompanied by a dangerous decline in mutual trust and understanding.
"Some people think that the process of deglobalization has started. I don't think so. I don't think that it's possible to stop international trade, flow of information, migration of people who want to study abroad, who want to work abroad. Globalization is not stopping and that's why interconnectedness of the nations only increases. But at the same time, simultaneously, we're absorbing diminishing of trust and understanding. It's a very dangerous combination. We connected, but we don't understand each other," said Safoyev.
Acknowledging that international organizations fail to meet public expectation in resolving conflicts, Safoyev said that regional mechanisms such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and cooperation between China and Central Asian countries offer models for effective cooperation.
"And I think that international organizations today are not matching expectations of the people in the regard with preventing conflicts, preventing the problems and resolving them. And it's the most challenging issues of the contemporary world. And I think that's why the experience of Shanghai organizations [the Shanghai Cooperation Organization] and cooperation between China and Central Asian countries is very important to demonstrate that it's possible," said Safoyev.
He also said that Central Asia serves as a prime example of overcoming fragmentation and uniting, as the region has transformed from one plagued by border disputes, suspicion, and resource conflicts a decade ago into a cohesive, cooperating bloc.
"From the more positive side, I'd like to note that the situation in Central Asia is something which might give us some more optimism. Twenty years ago, even 10 years ago, Central Asia was divided, divided by suspicion, divided by unresolved issues like unresolved borders, many conflicts of interest in the regard with the using the water resources of the transnational water resources etc. Today, in a relatively short time, period of time, Central Asia became completely different, more and more consolidating, uniting, having joint approach to the regional problems. And that's why Central Asia started to lure more attention worldwide. We're seeing that [there are] more interests of the global actors with the Central Asia, and I think that it demonstrates to the whole world that it's possible today now to overcome fragmentation and to unite. And that's why we, as usual, have both some concerns. But at the same time, we must be optimists in looking ahead," said Safoyev.
He also said that wisdom of humanity and visionary leadership inspire optimism that building future of common shared destiny is possible.
Senior Uzbek lawmaker calls for regional unity, cooperation amid global "polycrisis"
