MY SARISARI STORE

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The cockfights last till early in the evening, and by this time our sabungero has had his weekly share of blood and sport. If luck favored him that day, he heads home with his fighter and his opponentIs dead rooster in hand. The family will feast on chicken tonight. Otherwise, he wonders what to tell his wife when she finds out what has happened to their savings.

The most fitting description of cockfighting, perhaps can be found long ago in the words of a noted fictionist: "You don't know Filipinos until you have seen some fellow who had trained a chicken for months, put it into a ring against another's rooster. He bets everything he owns on it...... If he wins, glorious; if in one pass his rooster gets its throat cut, then you will see how a philosopher takes disaster..."

(Source: Lester Ledsma. The Philippines' Premier Gambling Sport )

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This is the sad end of a proud rooster. It fought for its life but lost the battle. A "cook" will remove the feathers and the owner of the cock can pick it up when he goes home. It took this guy less than two minutes to remove all the feathers.

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The wounds are mostly pretty bad and those "doctors" perform some amazing operations.
I wonder how many of those cocks survive.

The wounds of the victorious rooster will be stitched up by a “cock doctor” while the talunan or loser is the winner's trophy ... or dinner.

Directly after the fight, money change hands. The cash (crumpled bills) is sometimes thrown to and by the kristos to their respective bettors.

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The sentensiyador, or referee, picks both combatants up and lets the victor deliver its obligatory two pecks on the vanquished.

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Those two pecks are a must for the winning cock. If the bird fails to deliver both pecks, it loses. One peck, however, results in a draw.

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A bird is declared as dead, when it gives no life sign after three times of lifting. Most fights only  last for a few seconds or a couple of minutes.

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Basically speaking, there are two types of battlecocks, the flyer and the grounder. The flyer is more sensational as it fights from the air delivering multiple blows at sewing machine needle-speed. The grounder relies on footwork delivering single but extra powerful blows. In the air, a grounder will be no match against a flier. But if the flier takes wing, the grounder does not follow. It merely waits for the flier to come down and a gamecock is most vulnerable before it touches the ground, when its legs are momentarily tied to the landing operation.

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The casador is the manager responsible for the organization of the fights. The owners of the roosters place their bets with him. He is paid by the owner of the cockpit.

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Both fighting cocks are shown to the public.  The cock which is llamado gets the higher odds, while the underdog is termed dejado.

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There is suddenly an incredible frenzy. Since the bets are done orally, the cockpit starts to get noisy before every fight. The public place its bets with the Kristos. They are the persons that will arrange your bet with a second party and expect a tip if you win. They are mnemonic wonders. They remember every face, every bet and at what odds. When the cockpit reaches a decibel as to which oral transmission become impractical, handsign take the place of language. Fingers denote figures with their denominations determined by the position: if held upwards they are in the denomination of tens, horizontaly they denote hundreds, downwards they represent thousands. Five fingers pointing up signals 50 pesos, sidewards 500, and downwards it becomes 5,000. Pump your palm twice and you have wagered ten thousand.

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In essence the cockpit looks like a theater in the round. At the center is the arena around which sit the spectators. The building is very functional and there is criss-cross ventilation through big openings in the walls.

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Razor-sharp blades, or gaffs, are attached to the roosters’ heels by a professional gaffer (taga-tari)  whose job it is to choose the correct blade and to attach it at the proper angle and height wherein the rooster can inflict maximum mayhem with a minimum amount of movement and effort.

Heeling is an important aspect of cockfighting. It is the knife (tari) tied to the gamecock that kills the opponent. It spells the difference between victory and defeat.