In sabong worldwide, two roosters fight against each other with the intent to stop, weaken, or kill the other. Some fights end with one of the birds alive but severely injured, while other fights end in the death of a bird. Gambling is often tied with sabong as spectators place bets on their favored rooster.
On sabong day or cockfighting day, cockfighters are to stay in a designated area outside of the cockpit arena called ulutan. At the ulutan, cocks are paired based on their height, weight, and wingspan. There are two types of sabong matches: gaffed and ungaffed.
A gaffed matched means that cocks will have a gaff, locally known as ‘tari’, attached to their left leg. Gaffed fights are the most common type of sabong nationwide. Two kinds of knives are used in sabong: single-edged blades, which are often used in popular derbies, and double-edged blades. The length of the blades depends on the rooster owner, the host of the derby, or based on the agreement between participants before the start of a sabong derby.
On the other hand, implied in its name, the ungaffed fight is one where no gaffs are attached to the leg of the rooster. This type of fight is appealing as no cock will die. Ungaffed fights are more of a way for cockfighters to test the mettle of their cocks.
After roosters are matched at the ulutan, competing cocks would then be taken to an area where they could be equipped with a tari. Gaffers are individuals who attach the blades to the legs of the roosters. Per gamecock, a gaffer can earn PHP 1,000. A master gaffer earns PHP 3,000, and if the fighter bags the championship prize money, they can earn up to PHP 300,000 and more.
Inside the cockpit arena, owners and their cocks are assigned to a specific side: meron or wala. A cock that is favored to win or has the higher odds of winning is assigned to the meron side. However, the betting multiplier on the meron side is much lower compared to the wala side. The wala side is assigned to the less popular cock or the underdog and has a higher betting multiplier. A cock can be placed in the meron side of the arena if it has survived past fights or if its owner may have a huge influence on the cockfighting community.
If a finger is pointed upward, it means that the bet is in the denominations of “tens”, while pointing fingers downward means the bets are in the denomination of “thousands”. If a finger is pointed horizontally, this means bets are accepted in “hundreds”. For instance, four fingers upward mean PHP 40, while three fingers horizontally is a bet for PHP 300.
A judge or referee is called sentensyador or koyme. The sentensyador begins each fight and his verdict on the winning cock of each match is final and not subject to an appeal. Most fights take approximately 15 minutes. Bets are exchanged at the end of a fight.