In a move that should surprise absolutely no one who has ever tried to run a fight club in a state with actual regulations, the California State Athletic Commission has sent a cease-and-desist letter to a startup that hosted a human-versus-robot cage match last month. The letter, first reported by The New York Times, was posted to X on September 30th by Rek CEO Cix Liv, because of course it was.

The fight in question went down on September 18th, pitting human Frankie LaPenna against a humanoid robot owned by tech startup Rek. The robot was being piloted by a human using what the NYT delicately described as a "remote virtual-reality system" - which is a fancy way of saying a guy in a headset was controlling a metal skeleton like it was a very expensive video game. Rek calls itself "the humanoid robot fighting league" on its website, and the robot appears to be an EngineAI model with a Terminator-like head swapped on top, because subtlety is dead.

The commission's letter called the fight "unsanctioned" and demanded that Liv and Rek stop "holding, promoting or advertising any boxing or mixed martial arts contest match, or exhibition, involving any human" in California without the commission's approval. Liv's response? "We made it boys." A ringing endorsement of regulatory compliance if there ever was one.

But fear not, fans of mechanical mayhem: Rek's next planned match, happening Friday, will feature two robots with weapons fighting each other. So if you were worried the robot fighting league would be shut down before it could stage a proper gladiatorial spectacle, rest easy. The humans, apparently, are the ones who need a license. The robots just need a firmware update.