(a) Referees are responsible for enforcing the rules of the bouts and shall exercise immediate authority, direction and control over bouts. The referee shall conduct a rules meeting before the first bout of the event.     
      (b) The referee may eject from an event any person who violates the Code or department rules. If a second violates this chapter or the Code, the referee may disqualify the contestant to whom the second is assigned.     
      (c) If an assigned referee is unable to officiate, he shall notify the department at least five hours before the event.     
      (d) The safety of contestants shall be the primary concern of the referee at all times. The referee may stop any bout:      
        (1) where there is reason to believe that continuing may result in serious injury to either contestant;       
        (2) if a contestant cannot defend himself;       
        (3) because of an injury or a contestant's poor physical condition; or       
        (4) if the referee feels that a contestant is not fighting in earnest.       
      (e) If a contestant is accidentally fouled, including a head butt but can continue, the referee may stop the bout for a reasonable time, and inform the judges and the contestant's second of the accidental injury.     
      (f) If a mouthpiece is knocked out, the referee shall call time during a break in the action, the contestant's second will clean and reinsert the mouthpiece. If the mouthpiece is spit out the same procedure will be followed and the referee may charge the contestant with a foul.     
      (g) The referee or executive director may disqualify a contestant and declare the opponent the winner after one warning by the referee or a department representative for the use of profanity, obscene or threatening gestures by a contestant, his manager, or his second.     
      (h) When a foul occurs, the referee shall call time and advise the judges of the foul and the number of points they should deduct.     
      (i) Before each bout, the referee shall call the contestants and their chief seconds together for final instructions.     
      (j) When a low blow incapacitates a contestant, the referee shall give him reasonable time to recover. The referee may confer with the ringside physician. If a contestant shows an unwillingness to continue because of a low-blow claim, and the referee has resumed the fight, that contestant shall be declared the loser by a technical knockout.     
      (k) Knock-downs.      
        (1) When a blow to a contestant causes a knock-down, the referee shall order the opponent to go to the ring's farthest neutral corner, pointing to the corner, and immediately pick up the timekeeper's count.       
        (2) The referee shall audibly announce the passing of the seconds, accompanying the count with upward motions of his arm for each second and indicating the count with visual finger counts after each second.       
        (3) The referee shall stop counting if the opponent does not remain in the neutral corner until the count is complete.       
        (4) The mandatory eight count after knock downs will be the standard procedure in all bouts.       
        (5) If a contestant who is knocked down rises before the count of ten and goes down again without being struck, the referee shall resume the count where he stopped.       
        (6) A contestant who has been knocked down cannot be saved by the bell in any round, including the last one.       
        (7) If the contestant who is knocked down does not rise before the count of ten, the referee shall declare the opponent the winner by a knockout.       
        (8) If the contestant appears to be seriously injured, without beginning a count, the referee may summon the ringside physician into the ring, and declare the bout terminated by knockout.       
        (9) The referee's count is the official count.       
      (l) If a contestant does not answer the bell signifying the start of a round, the referee shall give a ten count and declare him the loser by a technical knockout.     
      (m) If a contestant who has been knocked out of the ring or has fallen out of the ring during the bout fails to return immediately, the referee shall give the contestant 20 seconds to return to the ring. After a 20 second count, if the contestant has not returned to the ring, the referee shall count the contestant out as if he were down. No one may help contestants back into the ring.     
      (n) If during the first four rounds a contestant is accidentally injured, and is unable to continue, or is pushed, knocked or falls out of the ring, and is injured by the fall and unable to return, the referee shall declare the bout a no decision. If such injury occurs during later rounds, all completed rounds and the partial round in which the bout is terminated shall be scored and the contestant ahead on points shall be declared the winner by technical decision.     
      (o) A licensed referee may act as a judge or a timekeeper.     
      (p) All referees must attend the rules meeting prior to the first bout of an event.     
     Source Note:        The provisions of this §61.41 adopted to be effective October 1, 2000, 25 TexReg 9941; amended to be effective December 1, 2003, 28 TexReg 10445; amended to be effective February 1, 2005, 30 TexReg 378; amended to be effective February 1, 2006, 31 TexReg 481; amended to be effective October 15, 2010, 35 TexReg 9081; amended to be effective March 1, 2013, 38 TexReg 1141; amended to be effective March 1, 2022, 47 TexReg 910