Bryan Pedersen watched a video several months ago that made him think about the future of fighting. In the clip, someone kicked a robot, and the robot kicked the human back.
"I'm like, ‘We're going to fight one of these one of these days,'" said Pedersen, chair of the Wyoming Combat Sports Commission and managing director at RBC Wealth Management in Cheyenne. "Videos are coming up all the time, and regular mentions of 'fighting robots' have become part of the zeitgeist.
"It has even been brought up on Joe Rogan's podcast."
That realization has led Pedersen to draft what may be the nation's first regulatory framework for "synthetic combatants" — a term he uses to describe robots designed to compete in combat sports against each other or against human fighters.
The draft document provided to Cowboy State Daily defines a "synthetic combatant" as "any electromechanical, mechatronic, or software-driven system designed to engage in regulated combat sports activity."
It establishes rules for "hybrid bouts" where humans would compete directly against machines, and creates licensing requirements for robot operators similar to those for trainers and referees.
Pedersen points to recent developments that suggest robot combat isn't science fiction anymore.
Robot Games
China hosted the first World Humanoid Robot Games in August, featuring more than 500 robots from 16 countries competing in track and field, soccer, martial arts, and kickboxing.
In May 2025, the Mecha Fighting Series launched in Hangzhou, China, showcasing boxing robots with some controlled in real-time by humans via virtual reality headsets.
The conversation gained mainstream attention when podcaster Joe Rogan, influencer Logan Paul and Palmer Luckey — creator of the Oculus VR headset — discussed robots as ideal MMA training partners that could be programmed to emulate legendary fighters and adjust difficulty levels.
"Logan Paul was talking about someone's going to do this in the next five years," Pedersen said. "You've got Elon Musk building these Optimus robots. And maybe you start optimizing these robots in order to be better at jujitsu, in order to be confident in Muay Thai."
The prospect raises urgent safety questions that Pedersen believes Wyoming should address now rather than later.
"These commissions exist for fighter safety, the sanctioning and regulating of fair fights between combatants,” Pedersen said. “And, like, we don't put brand new fighters against someone who's fought 40 times. Well, we also have to be careful about how you take this on."
Pedersen even wonders whether emerging technologies like Musk's Neuralink brain implants could constitute performance-enhancing devices in combat sports.
"If I have a Neuralink and you don't and we were boxing, am I able to process what you are doing faster than you?" Pedersen asked. "Is it in fact performance enhancing? This is all moving so quickly that if you don't address how synthetic combatants will come into play, someone's going to get hurt."
His draft regulations require all synthetic combatants to be equipped with failsafe shutoff devices operable by referees and commission inspectors. The rules prohibit projectiles, fire, chemical agents and high-voltage electricity.
Hybrid bouts where robots compete against humans would require case-by-case approval with additional medical oversight.
"I don't want to make rules on my heels. I want to make rules on my toes," Pedersen said. "We identify something that's coming forward, and let's have a pathway to move forward as opposed to, ‘OK, it's already happening. How are we going to do it now?’"
The World Humanoid Robot Games in China in August 2025 showcased the latest technology of robots competing in sporting events, like running, kickboxing, and soccer. A Wyoming man says it's only a matter of time before there are human vs. robot competitions. (Getty Images) 
The World Humanoid Robot Games in China in August 2025 showcased the latest technology of robots competing in sporting events, like running, kickboxing, and soccer. A Wyoming man says it's only a matter of time before there are human vs. robot competitions. (Getty Images) 
The World Humanoid Robot Games in China in August 2025 showcased the latest technology of robots competing in sporting events, like running, kickboxing, and soccer. A Wyoming man says it's only a matter of time before there are human vs. robot competitions. (Getty Images) 
The World Humanoid Robot Games in China in August 2025 showcased the latest technology of robots competing in sporting events, like running, kickboxing, and soccer. A Wyoming man says it's only a matter of time before there are human vs. robot competitions. (Getty Images)
Out Front And Punching
Wyoming has a history of being first in combat sports regulation.
The state created the world's first MMA-only commission in 2012 when Pedersen served in the Legislature.
"Wyoming's not afraid to be a leader in combat sports,” he said.
The state went on to have the first commission to regulate bare-knuckle boxing, hosting the world's first female bare-knuckle boxing fight and the first bare-knuckle MMA event.
"We had the first Ice Wars, which is bareknuckle boxing on ice," Pedersen said. "It's everything you love about hockey without all the sticks. It's just the fights."
In 2020 during the pandemic when much of the world remained shut down, Wyoming hosted the Western Hemisphere's first lethwei world championship — lethwei being the official sport of Myanmar.
"Here in Cheyenne," Pedersen said, “it had 3.1 million streaming views because it's huge in Southeast Asia."
The technological possibilities are both exciting and concerning to Pedersen.
"Can you program that fighter to box like Muhammad Ali?" Pedersen asked. "With existing fighters, how quickly does it ramp up?"
The precision of robots could make them ideal sparring partners or deadly opponents, depending on their programming.
"A robot could stop 1 millimeter from your face," Pedersen said. "Or with too much power, it could break your eye socket. And so you've got to figure out how this comes in and is implemented."
Pedersen believes human nature will inevitably lead to human-robot combat.
"Every time we create something, we find a way to fight it," he said. "You see the guys in the bar, they're going to say, ‘Bet my robot can beat up your robot.’ And then when that robot wins, he's going to say, ‘Well, I bet I can take your robot.’
"And that's the first (human-robot) fight."
In Wyoming, he said, “We're going to start and lead the conversation: How are we going to take on synthetic combatants in a way that protects human fighters?"
Bryan Pedersen, left, at a bare-knuckle fight with his sons Brock and Dane. (Courtesy Bryan Pedersen) 
Cheyenne fighter Cody Jerabek has trained with a rollbot and said robots are already being used for training in MMA and other combat sports. (Courtesy Cody Jerabek)
A Fighter's Perspective
Cody Jerabek is a professional mixed martial artist from Cheyenne who has competed around the world, most recently in Osaka, Japan.
He also teaches jujitsu out of his home gym — Madhouse — in Cheyenne.
Jerabek wasn't entirely surprised to hear about Wyoming leading the conversation on robot combat regulation.
"Wyoming was definitely at the forefront of that," Jerabek said, referring to the state's early embrace of mixed martial arts. "If you look at the beginning of the UFC itself, a lot of that was fought in places like Casper, Wyoming, and Cheyenne, Wyoming."
The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence and robotics has made the prospect of robot combat more realistic than many realize.
Jerabek has already encountered robot technology in his training.
At jujitsu conventions around the country, including the world championships in Las Vegas two months ago, he encountered programmable humanoid training dummies that simulate real opponents.
The dummies also have showed up at Madhouse.
"The training dummy can be programmed and positioned to have certain levels of tensile strength or the ability to be choked or attacked in a way that can mimic whoever you're anticipating to fight," Jerabek said.
"So you can change like the weight, size, and strength of this dummy and basically practice your chokes,” he said. "So the dummy's eyes will run green. And then when you've sunk the choke enough to where you would knock that person unconscious, the dummy's eyes will go red."
The technology exists for robots to make the leap from passive training tools to active sparring partners and potentially competitors.
"Any time you step into that cage as a fighter, you have to sign waivers and all that stuff, because even fighters fighting other humans die in the cage all the time," Jerabek said.
"If there was actually a situation where I stood there in front of one and the cage door locked behind me, which is already terrifying no matter how many times you fight, and I’ve fought a lot,” he said. "No matter how many times you fight, that click of the cage door behind you where they lock it and you're like, ‘OK, I'm in here, and it's just me and him.”
Or in the case of a robot — it.
Some have compared this move by robots into fighting rings to the role robots play in the world of competitive chess.
"I saw an article where one of those AI chess robots was doing a chess match against a 7-year-old kid, and something in the robot malfunctioned,” said Jerabek, offering a cautionary tale. “It ended up grabbing the kid's hand and breaking his finger.”
Contact David Madison at david@cowboystatedaily.com
@rollbotbjj Faber at the pi #mma #bjj #ufc #drilltoskill ♬ OUT NOW Enzo Smooth Operator - Enzo is Burning
David Madison can be reached at david@cowboystatedaily.com.
