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| Ivan Saldajeno |
By Ivan Saldajeno
PUERTO PRINCESA—Oscar Dela Hoya, Manny Pacquiao, and, in a way, Rustico Torrecampo and Juan Manuel Marquez, have been known as knockout artists (or in the case of Torrecampo and Marquez, for giving Pacquiao knockout losses).
We define a boxing knockout as the case where either a boxer floors another by a solid punch and the other pug fails to stand up at the count of 10, a boxer lands a devastating punch on another that the latter is out cold when he is floored, the referee has seen enough of a certain boxer outclassing his foe too much that he steps in to stop it, or a boxer or his corner verbally conceding the match after taking too much damage. The latter two are specifically called technical knockouts.
But what if both boxers knock each other out at once?
Enter a "double knockout".
Rephrasing the aforementioned definition, a double knockout is the case where both pugilists each land a significant strike that would knock them down simultaneously and that they fail to stand up after the 10-count or worse, get knocked out cold.
There is not much of a talk about double knockouts because they rarely happen.
But a discussion with international referee Gene Del Bianco during the 55th OPBF Convention at the Princesa Garden Island Resort on Friday shed some light about it.
Probably, the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the phrase "double knockout" is that this should merit a draw for both boxers.
But this is actually not the case according to Del Bianco, who once officiated a match of former local boxing star Denver Cuello and current world champion Jerwin Ancajas.
In fact, Del Bianco said, "Some boxing organizations credit a double knockout as a loss for both boxers."
However, he added that some other bodies would acknowledge the effort of both pugs that they credit a double knockout as both a win and a loss for the athletes.
In a separate discussion with Dugout Philippines, Del Bianco further said that despite both fighters scoring knockouts, it will not be credited into their respective knockout win records as the knockouts would just cancel each other out.
How to count a double knockout?
Just like in the case of a single knockout, a double knockdown is not yet a double knockout.
But how can "the third man in the ring" oversee whether both pugs will miss the 10-count or not especially that he can only monitor one of them?
According to Del Bianco, the timekeeper will have a role in this one.
He said, "The timekeeper should coordinate with the referee on who they will respectively oversee."
He added that both the ref and the keeper should count the boxers simultaneously, although he admitted there were cases that both officials' counts were not in sync but would be eventually resolved.
The said counting setup, as per Del Bianco, will help a lot on whether one of the two pugs or both of them will make the count or not.
If a certain pug eventually stands up in time after the double knockdown and the other isn't, the single knockout rule will now take effect, that is, the former will get a knockout win and the latter will incur a loss.
If both fighters stand up in time, the bout continues.
Follow him on Twitter: @IvanSaldajeno
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