Imagine this: deep inside an underground boxing arena, the crowd roars. A humanoid robot lands a powerful jab, sending its opponent reeling. The referee slams the mat, signaling a knockout, and the announcer’s voice thunders, urging everyone to chant: “Robot fight club! Robot fight club!” It’s a scene straight out of a sci-fi movie, but this is real life in San Francisco.
Jonathan Moon, 26, CEO of Budbreak, a startup building vineyard inspection robots, described the experience as ‘honestly really surreal.’ He felt like he’d been transported to the year 2040, not 2025. The atmosphere was a unique blend of past and future: steampunk enthusiasts mingled with tech workers still in their retro Microsoft Windows tees. Fake $100 bills decorated the ring, techno music pulsed, and neon signs advertised flying autonomous cars. This was San Francisco on a Friday night.
Images from the event show humanoid robots and their ‘coaches’ in action, with vibrant ‘Ultimate Fighting Bots’ posters adorning the walls, setting the stage for an unforgettable night.
This electrifying scene is a direct result of San Francisco’s booming artificial intelligence industry. As tech professionals flock back to the city, they’re seeking vibrant, in-person experiences to balance their demanding digital lives. Beyond robot boxing, the city’s unique cultural landscape now includes events like creating Taser knives for rubber-blade combat, ‘performative male’ contests (where AI judges men sipping matcha in Alamo Square), and intense AI-themed trivia battles in local bars.
Victor Pontis, co-founder and CEO of event platform Luma, notes a significant surge in searches for San Francisco activities. Last month alone, the city hosted nearly 2,000 live events—including hackathons and dinners—almost double from the previous year. AI-focused events, in particular, quadrupled to 578. The high demand for these spectacles is clear: attendees, sometimes traveling from out of town, paid $100 to witness robots clash in the ring.
These aren’t your typical networking mixers. Tech professionals are craving authentic community and connections outside their work. Chris Miles, 38, a software engineer at AI chip startup Quadric, exemplifies this, regularly seeking out such events. Miles, who actively searches Luma for new happenings, aims to attend one engaging event every week, expressing a desire for ‘less serious things like this.’
Even prominent figures like tech blogger Robert Scoble are joining in, underscoring the widespread appeal of San Francisco’s flourishing tech culture scene. The events are playful and eccentric, featuring moments like a fight host playfully tossing fake money at a robot vacuum adorned with a fishnet-clad leg, or participants sharing a kiss for good luck before a robot brawl.
Event organizers are struggling to keep up with overwhelming demand. For instance, an AI-themed trivia night sponsored by OpenAI and hosted by venture firm SignalFire had over 600 RSVPs, yet only half could be accommodated despite moving to a larger venue. The audience, largely software engineers, embraced the intensely nerdy questions, including challenges like ‘what does this code output?’ Photographs from the trivia night at Standard Deviant Brewing show techies fiercely competing, with trophies awarded to the triumphant. Top three finishers proudly celebrated their victories, a testament to the competitive spirit and camaraderie.
Josh Constine, a venture partner at SignalFire, observes that when tech professionals have a small window of free time, ‘they want to do something weird and special that feels like it could only happen in SF.’ Steve Jang, managing partner at Kindred Ventures, notes that San Francisco’s history of tech booms and busts has always led to social activities mirroring current innovations. He recalls friends watching primitive robot fights in Fort Mason during the dot-com era, remarking that this new wave of futuristic entertainment ‘just rhymes with everything that the city’s been about.’
Vitaly and Xenia Bulatov, the masterminds behind Ultimate Fighting Bots, launched the event to deliver a ‘tech event that doesn’t suck,’ as Vitaly puts it. Back at the robot boxing ring, the audience was captivated by the humanoid combatants, roughly the size and agility of a third grader. The Bulatovs organized Ultimate Fighting Bots in July from Frontier Tower, a tech hub in San Francisco’s Mid-Market, aiming to create genuinely enjoyable tech-centric entertainment. The latest live-streamed event showcased six custom-programmed humanoids from Unitree Robotics and Booster Robotics, supplied by FrodoBots AI. Each robot, ranging from $30,000 to $60,000, was a testament to the investment in this futuristic sport. Tickets, priced at $100 (including a plus-one), were highly coveted. While proceeds covered event expenses, the Bulatovs envision a profitable series of sporting events. Preparations were intense, with one robot, cleverly named Peuter Steel (a nod to investor Peter Thiel), ready to scrap, showcasing the fusion of tech culture and playful irreverence. Spectators were engrossed, eyes fixed on the mechanical gladiators as they attempted to dismantle each other.
Controlled by human operators using video game controllers, the robots each boasted elaborate backstories, unique names, creative costumes, and even dramatic actor-coaches. Googlord, for example, was a Google intern in a pinwheel hat, while Peuter Steel (a humorous jab at Peter Thiel) sported a ‘CEO’ chain and a puffer vest. The final showdown pitted Peuter Steel against Waifu.exe, a robot in a dress, whose name referenced Elon Musk’s xAI chatbot, Grok, and its AI companion. Carter Crouch, a former Amazon data analyst who traveled from Los Angeles for the event, simply called it ‘peak SF.’
With the next robot boxing match set for September 27th, the Bulatovs hope to bridge the gap between human and machine. Despite underlying fears about AI, Xenia Bulatov emphasized that these humanoids evoke genuine emotional responses, providing a unique platform for people to connect and build ‘relationships in real life’ through their shared fascination with robots. By dressing up and engaging these robots in inherently human activities, she believes they create an undeniable connection with the audience. After a night of thrilling combat, the robots were pictured at rest on a couch, like weary gladiators, awaiting their next battle.