A boxer is considered to be down whenever he is in any of the following states:
- Any part of his body, except feet, touches the floor.
- He stands, leans, or sits on the ring ropes.
- Any part of his body, or the whole body, is out of the ropes.
- Following a hard hit, he has not fallen and is not lying on the ropes, but is in a semi-conscious state and cannot, in the opinion of the referee, continue the round.
- In case the knocked down boxer manages to stand up and is ready to continue the fight before the referee has counted to eight (8). In such case, the referee must continue counting until before he orders “fight”.
- If the knocked down boxer is ready to continue before the count of ten (10), but he falls down again without any additional blow. In such case, the referee shall continue to count from the number he was interrupted at.
- In case the referee has counted out of ten (10), the bout shall be considered finished. In such case, the referee shall declare the knocked down boxer to have lost the bout by “knockout.”
- In case both boxers fall on the ring floor simultaneously, the referee shall proceed on counting and shall keep on counting as long as there is one boxer on the ring floor. If both boxers cannot manage to stand up until they are counted out of ten (10), the referee shall declare a “draw.” In case the boxers are trying to stand up, but have their arms or legs tangled, or one boxer is on top of the other, the referee must stop the count and separate them. He shall then continue his count in case one of the boxers is still on the ring floor.In case of a knockdown, the referee must wait for one (1) second before he begins counting loudly from one to ten with one-second interval. Along with his counting action, the referee must show a hand signal for each second in order to notify the boxer of the number of counts.
- In case a boxer is not ready to continue the bout following a resting interval between rounds, the referee must count, unless it is due to improper dressing.