RNC04 Postponed: Legal Collision Halts Controversial Combat Event

The event that sells itself on impact has been stopped in its tracks by a legal collision of its own.

Runit Combat’s latest show, RNC04, has been postponed after the NSW Supreme Court stepped in, forcing organisers to push the controversial combat sports event back to 2026.

At the heart of the debate is the nature of the sport itself. It is defined bluntly: a combat sport where the central aim is for participants “to strike, kick, hit, grapple with, throw or punch one or more other combatants”. The essence, as its own marketing once boasted, “is the collision between them.”

This time, the collision came with the law.

In a statement, RNC confirmed the postponement and acknowledged the court’s ruling, while making it clear the promotion plans to return under a new framework.

“RNC will now operate as a regulated sport in NSW under the authority. We are working with them to bring RNC into that framework properly,” the statement read.

RNC04, which had been set for Royal Randwick Racecourse, will not disappear from the calendar, only shift. The promotion has locked in plans to restage the event at the same venue later in 2026, insisting: “Same venue. Same card. Same event.

“Your ticket carries over automatically. If you cannot attend the new date, refund instructions are going to every ticket holder by email today.

“To our athletes, coaches and teams. You gave everything to get here. None of it is lost. This is a delay, not a defeat.”

The card had drawn attention not only for its brutal format but for the names attached. Former rugby league forwards Dylan Napa and Sam Kasiano were among those scheduled to compete, underlining how the code has increasingly courted ex-NRL players looking for a second act in combat sports.

Not everyone who stepped into that world has stayed.

Earlier this year, former NRL front-rower Josh Aloiai, who had been working as a coach with RNC fighters, publicly walked away from the sport. His departure came with a stark warning about what he had seen from close range.

In a video posted to social media, Aloiai said: “After coaching at RNC last night, that’s not something I could ever be involved in again.

“As a coach, man, I could not do that again, feels like you’re just preparing dudes to go and get their heads knocked off and get brain bleeds and tap them on the back and squirt water in their face.”

His words cut through the hype and hit at the core of the safety concerns that have followed RNC and similar promotions.

RNC boss Fernandez responded earlier this year by stressing that Aloiai’s stance was his own and that the company would not stand in the way of such decisions. Speaking to the Herald at the time, Fernandez said Aloiai was entitled to his views and that the promotion respects any athlete’s choice about whether to be involved in any sport.

That debate has only intensified in the shadow of tragedy elsewhere.

Vulangi Olosoni, who won the Runit Championship League final — a rival competition to RNC — in June 2025, has already publicly apologised for his part in encouraging young people to take up the sport. His remorse followed the death of New Zealand teenager Ryan Satterthwaite, a loss that cast a long, dark shadow over the entire combat scene.

Now, with the Supreme Court forcing RNC to pause and submit to tighter regulation, the promotion faces a defining stretch. The tickets still count, the fighters are still waiting, and the organisers insist it is only a matter of time.

When RNC04 finally lands at Royal Randwick Racecourse in 2026, the question will not just be who wins. It will be whether this sport, built on collision, can survive the scrutiny that comes with it.