How boxing fights end: every result code on a boxing record

A boxing record is a list of abbreviations, and most of them are never explained to anyone. They are not interchangeable: each one records who stopped the fight and why, which changes what it says about the fighter. Here is the full set, in the order you are likely to meet them.

KO — knockout

The cleanest category. A fighter is knocked down and fails to rise before the referee's count of ten, or is unable to continue in the referee's judgement after being down. It is recorded as a win inside the distance for the fighter who landed it. The count itself is the referee's, counted aloud, and it can be slow or fast depending on the fighter's condition — a boxer who is up at seven but cannot convince the referee he is fit to continue will still be stopped.

TKO — technical knockout

A stoppage during a round, without a ten count being completed. It is called by the referee when a fighter cannot defend himself intelligently, when he is taking unanswered punishment, or on the advice of the ringside physician — commonly for a cut that has become unsafe. A corner can also stop it during the round by throwing in the towel, though the referee is not obliged to accept it immediately if a fighter is in immediate danger. On the record a TKO reads as a win inside the distance, and it is the most common form of stoppage in the sport.

RTD — retired

The between-rounds stoppage: the fighter or his corner tells the referee he will not answer the bell for the next round. Nobody is waved off mid-exchange; the decision happens on the stool. It is recorded as a win for the opponent, grouped statistically with stoppages rather than knockouts, and it is discussed in full on its own page because it is the one code people see without knowing what it means.

DQ — disqualification

A result for a rule breach rather than a competitive outcome. Most disqualifications follow repeated fouls — headbutts, low blows, hitting on the break, holding and hitting — after warnings and point deductions have been exhausted, or a single flagrant foul. A disqualified fighter loses regardless of the scorecards. The related but distinct case is a point deduction, where a foul costs a point on the cards and the fight continues.

NC — no contest

The result that hands the fight to nobody. It is used when a bout cannot legitimately produce a winner: a fighter is unable to continue through no fault of the opponent before the minimum scoring distance, a serious accidental foul early in the fight ends it, or a result is later overturned — a failed test or a discovered rules breach can convert a win into a no contest long after the night. It is the correct answer to “what happens if a fight is stopped in round two by a clash of heads”, which is a question the rules have a specific answer to and the broadcast rarely gives.

Technical decision and technical draw

When an accidental injury ends a fight after enough rounds have been completed for the cards to count — usually four in a twelve-round bout — the judges' scores up to that point decide it. If they produce a winner, it is a technical decision; if they are level, a technical draw. The mechanism exists to stop an accidental clash of heads from producing an arbitrary result.

Why the distinctions matter

Because records are read. A fighter with wins by decision, by RTD and by KO has a different profile from one with the same number of wins all inside the distance, and a no contest sits outside the win-loss line entirely rather than counting either way. The codes are the sport's way of keeping that distinction on the record, which is the reason they have survived for more than a century.