It might sound like the plot of a bonkers sci-fi film, but the world has now witnessed the very first human versus robot boxing match.

Influencer Frankie Lapenna stepped into the ring last Friday to take on a 6ft-tall humanoid robot which bore an alarming resemblance to the Terminator.

The event took place in San Francisco and was hosted by robot fighting company REK, which controlled the robot remotely.

While Lapenna made a valiant effort, the fight did not go all too well for him.

As the influencer stepped into the ring wearing a helmet and protective pads, his visibly nervous coach said: 'I'm scared for you, man.'

The fight started with Lapenna landing a few solid punches that rocked the lumbering robot's head back and sent it stumbling.

But humanity's hopes didn't hold out for long as the robot soon countered with a devastating flurry of kicks that sent him flying across the cage.

Despite it looking like the bot delivered a beatdown, REK says that Lapenna actually won the fight and later that evening went on to tackle an even bigger bot.

'I didn't want to fight the robot, I had to. I am a stunt-man, this is what I do for a living,' he told the Daily Mail.

'This was nothing out of the ordinary for me, it was just another regular work week for me. This robot fight doesn't even rank in the top 5 most dangerous things I've done.'

Cix Liv, chief executive of REK, told the Daily Mail that hosting human versus robot fights was not something the company had originally planned.

The San Francisco-based firm's main business is staging fights between remote-controlled robots, like a real-life version of the film Real Steel.

However, when Lapenna reached out about two months ago saying he wanted to get into the ring himself, the opportunity seemed too good to turn down.

In the fights, Lapenna wore motorcycle gear to shield him from the worst of the blows and spiked boxing gloves to cushion his hands. 

'When he reached out to us, he said he didn't want to wear any protective clothing,' Mr Liv told the Daily Mail.

'But we told him that he had to, and when he saw what the robot could do, he actually said that he needed more.'