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"I'm a fairly visual thinker. In doing science, I think in terms of pictures of things happening, and then do the mathematics."
- Gregory Benford

Boxing Robot  
  Robots that fight in exhibitions, in the ring, for spectators.  

Although the story contains fighting robots, it does not use the phrase "robot boxer" or "boxing robot". And ultimately, the fight in the story is between a robot and a man effectively pretending to be a robot.

Pole reached inside Maxo and activated the leg cable centers. Maxo began shifting around. He lifted his left leg and shook off the base wheel automatically. Then he was standing lightly on his black-shoed feet, feeling at the floor like a cured cripple testing for stance.

Pole reached forward and jabbed in the FULL button, then jumped back as Maxo's eye beams centered on him and the robot moved forward, broad shoulders rocking slowly, arms up defensively.

"Christ," Pole muttered, "they'll hear 'im squeakin' in the back row."

Technovelgy from Steel, by Richard Matheson.
Published by Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1956
Additional resources -

At the beginning of the fight, the advanced B7 robot stands ready, effectively shaped like a man:

The B-seven was motionless, its gloved hands hanging across its legs. There was imitation blonde hair, crew cut, growing out of its skull pores. Its face was that of an impassive Adonis. The simulation of muscle curve on its body and limbs was almost perfect. For a moment Kelly almost thought that years had been peeled away and he was in the business again, facing a young contender. He swallowed carefully.

Pole crouched beside him, pretending to fiddle with an arm plate.

"Steel, don't," he muttered again. Kelly didn't answer. He felt a desperate desire to suck in a lungful of air and bellow his chest. He drew in small patches of air through his nose and let them trickle out. He kept staring at the Maynard Flash, thinking of the array of instant reaction centers inside that smooth arch of chest.

As the fight begins, the scene in the ring is described:

There was no referee. B-fighters never clinched - their machinery rejected it - and there was no knock-down count. A felled B-fighter stayed down. The new B-nine, it was claimed by the Mawling publicity staff, would be able to get up, which would make for livelier and longer bouts.

Compare to the fight machine (boxing robot) from Jingle in the Jungle, by Aldo Giunta, published by IF in 1957.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from Steel
  More Ideas and Technology by Richard Matheson
  Tech news articles related to Steel
  Tech news articles related to works by Richard Matheson

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