Boxing and MMA terms: KO, TKO, UD, SD, submission, WBA, WBC, IBF, WBO, undisputed champion, southpaw, plus a weight-class table with limits.
How a fight ends
KO (knockout)
A fighter goes down and can’t beat the referee’s ten count, or is knocked unconscious. The clearest win.
TKO (technical knockout)
The referee, doctor or corner stops the fight because a fighter can’t safely continue. Counted together with KOs in stats.
RTD (corner retirement)
Between rounds, the fighter or their corner says they won’t continue. A type of technical knockout.
Submission
In MMA, forcing the opponent to give up with a choke or joint lock. They “tap out”.
Decision
The fight goes the distance and the judges’ scorecards decide. Three kinds: unanimous (UD), split (SD), majority (MD).
UD (unanimous decision)
All three judges score the fight for the same fighter.
SD (split decision)
Two judges pick one fighter, the third picks the other. The classic disputed result.
MD (majority decision)
Two judges pick the same fighter, the third scores it a draw.
TD (technical decision)
The fight is stopped early by an accident (e.g. a clash of heads); the scorecards so far decide it.
PTS (points)
A decision by a single judge, usually the referee. Common in older and European bouts.
Draw
The judges can’t separate the fighters. Can also be a split or majority draw.
DQ (disqualification)
A fighter loses for breaking the rules (headbutts, low blows, biting…).
NC (no contest)
The fight has no result: an accident, a failed drug test or an overturned decision. No win or loss on the record.
NWS (newspaper decision)
In the early 1900s decisions were banned in parts of the US; newspaper writers named a winner the next day. Not on the official record.
Scoring
Round
3 minutes in boxing (usually 2 for women), 5 in MMA. Title fights are 12 rounds in boxing, 5 in MMA.
10-point must system
Each round the winner gets 10, the loser 9; a knockdown or a lopsided round makes it 10-8 or less. Three judges score separately.
Belts and promotions
Title fight
A fight where a belt is on the line. On this site, “title fight wins” counts both winning and defending a belt.
Boxing’s four belts
Boxing has no single league; four sanctioning bodies crown their own champions: WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO. A division can have four champions at once.
WBA
World Boxing Association, the oldest body (1921). Known for handing out several belts: “super”, “regular”, “interim”.
WBC
World Boxing Council (1963). Famous green belt, often seen as the most prestigious.
IBF
International Boxing Federation (1983). Known for strictly enforcing mandatory challengers.
WBO
World Boxing Organization (1988). The youngest of the four major bodies.
The Ring
Boxing magazine since 1922. Its belt marks the “true champion” of a division, independent of the sanctioning bodies.
Undisputed champion
A boxer holding all four major belts (WBA, WBC, IBF, WBO) in a division at once. Very rare.
Interim champion
A belt given while the real champion is injured or inactive; later unified with the real title.
MMA belts
In MMA each promotion (UFC, ONE, PFL…) has its own belt — no sanctioning bodies like boxing. The UFC belt is the most prestigious.
Weight class
Fighters are grouped by weight; miss the limit at the weigh-in and you can’t fight for the belt. Boxing has 17 divisions, MMA 8 for men.
Stance and technique
Orthodox
Left foot and left hand forward. The classic right-hander’s stance.
Southpaw
Right foot and right hand forward. Awkward for opponents who rarely face it.
Switch
A fighter who switches between both stances.
Reach
Fingertip-to-fingertip distance with arms spread. A longer reach lets you hit from further away.
Takedown
In MMA, taking the opponent down with wrestling. Grapplers like to win on the ground.
Ground and pound
In MMA, hitting a downed opponent from top position. If the referee stops it, it’s a TKO.
Cestus terms
Power rating
Cestus’s Glicko-based rating: it moves with who you beat and how — wins over strong opponents, finishes and world titles carry more information, split decisions less. Every rating has an uncertainty margin: fighters with few fights or long layoffs are shown minus that margin, so untested names don’t shoot up. Its settings were tuned on how well it predicts past fights. 1700 ≈ the era’s elite average, 1800+ is the very best.
Peak rating
The highest power rating a fighter reached (after at least 12 fights, minus the uncertainty margin — a one-fight spike doesn’t count). Because it is measured against the elite of its own era, fighters from different eras can be compared.
Report card
A playful report card built from the data: grades are relative to the same sport (5 = top 10%).
Limited data
Fighters without a Wikipedia page: the record comes from a roster or from opponents in our database.