The Way I Earn US$100 ‘Bonus’ Boxing’s ‘Mandatory Standing Eight Count’ In World Championship Fight

By ALEX P. VIDAL

When the “mandatory standing 8 count” in professional boxing was still in effect, I was among the last referees to administer it in a world championship fight 12 years ago, modesty aside.

This was on February 17, 1996 in Chonburi, Thailand when I refereed the 12-round WBF super-flyweight championship fight between champion Samson Elite Gym (also known as Samson 3-K Battery and Samson Dutchboygym) and Mexican challenger Genaro “Poblanito” Garcia.

Samson (43-0, 36 KOs), Thailand’s most charismatic world champion until his retirement on April 19, 2002 at age 30, decked the visitor from Puebla, Mexico with a barrage of head and body blows in the 7th canto.

Sensing the fight no longer was sport, I automatically pulled the plug and declared Samson winner by technical knockout (TKO).

Three rounds earlier, I gave Genaro a mandatory standing eight count after Samson trapped him in the ropes and threatened to blow away the space between Genaro’s ears with a series of damaging uppercuts and hooks.

Genaro survived Samson’s homicidal onslaught but finished the 4th round in wobbly legs.

When I collected the scorecards of the three judges—the late Don Marks (Australia), Jaffar (Indonesia), a Thai judge—and submitted it to fight supervisor, WBF Asia Pacific Rim representative and now vice president Jack Rennie, who sat beside with then WBF president Ron L. Scalf (Tennessee, USA), he gave a thumbs up sign indicating his approval of the mandatory standing 8 count.

In the sixth round, Samson, fighting like a full gasoline tank, again pulverized the then 19-year-old Genaro with ear-piercing shots in the jaw and in the midsection.

I thought of stopping the carnage but Genaro showed some signs of life as he quickly used dizzying lateral movements to avoid Samson’s laser-laced fists while punching his way out from harm’s way.

Genaro was good for another round.

After I terminated the fight in the 7th round, Supervisor Rennie approached me while on my way to the dressing room and handed over a US$100 bill. “You deserve a bonus for a job well done. Those two mandatory standing eight counts showed that you were decisive,” said Rennie who immediately informed President Scalf of the ante.

The WBF rules then allowed the referee to impose a “mandatory standing 8 count” for a fighter who was still on his feet despite absorbing an avalanche of heavy blows in any round.

A mandatory standing eight count is a rule in amateur boxing.

In imposing the WBF rule, the referee had the sole discretion whether or not to halt the action and declare the besieged boxer a loser by TKO if he felt that he had suffered punishment too many or to allow him to continue but give him a time to recuperate by administering the mandatory standing 8 count if he felt he was still in the fistic game.

This rule once had sparked some controversies especially that the other world boxing bodies then like the World Boxing Council (WBC), World Boxing Association (WBA), International Boxing Federation (IBF), and World Boxing Organization (WBO) did not observe it.

Under the unified rules, a boxer can be given only a mandatory eight count if, after being hit with legal blows, any part of his body down to his legs touches the canvas.

And if he fails to beat the mandatory count after being dropped by a legitimate punch or punches, he loses the bout by knockout. /MP