A fighter cannot be saved by the bell in any round including the 12th and final round. If a guy is knocked down say with 5 seconds in the fight, a number of things can happen

#1 ref decides that the fighter cant continue and immediately stops the fight,no count is needed or he could do it during the count. loss by ko

#2 ref gets to 10 count (5 secs of which are after the round ends and fighter isn't standing and/or "presenting" ref calls it a KO

#3 ref gets to 10 count (3 secs of which are after the round ends and fighter is standing and "presenting" ref feels that the fighter cant continue calls it a TKO .If the fighter is up before 8 the ref stops the count at 8. Even if a fight is barely knocked down,say one knee or a glove or the ropes keep him from being knocked down the ref will always count to a minimum of 8.unless he stops the fight first, as in case #1 .(standing 8 count is when a ref feels that the fighter is hurt,the ropes are keeping him from falling down ,hes out on his feet etc. and may at his discretion initiate a "standing" 8 count even though the fighter hasnt been "down" if there is no standing 8 count in effect the ref has no choice but to do nothing or stop the fight.)

#4 ref starts counting. fighter gets up (sometime before 10 count) presents and ref figures that IF the fight were continuing he could continue. round is over so he send fighter to corner and fight goes to the cards


THE same rules apply if a fighter is knocked out of the ring by a punch.
BUT the count is increased to 20 seconds.
The liahkovich camp has a case to protest (i feel) if it can be shown that the fighter was interfered with outside of the ring (he was held back on the shoulders by at least one person at ringside maybe 2)

The official answer will (should)be that the ref looked at the fighter outside of the ring and determined that he was too badly hurt to continue even if given the full 20 seconds and stopped the fight at that time. whether that occurred before or after the end of the round is irrelevant

Any comment re the application of the rules in this case? or any comments? ( other than he got hammered he should quit winning)
personnally re the fight in question i think they both sucked dog sh*t through a straw!