They battled to the death. The movie came out in around the late 80s early 90s

This movie came out around the late 80s early 90s and the cotrolled these robots that were pretty big they trained and battled all I can remember are the machines.

Maybe you mean this one. Not really sure.

Robot Jox (1990) (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102800/)

That's the movie thanks