RP’s rise and fall in Olympic boxing

The last four medals won by Filipino athletes in the Olympics came from boxing. Of the country’s nine Olympic medals in history, the so-called Sweet Science accounted for five. And the Philippines’ two silver medals were delivered by boxers.

The first Filipino fighters to compete in the Olympics were flyweight John Gray, bantamweight Jose (Cely) Villanueva, lightweight Jose Padilla, Jr., and welterweight Carlos Padilla who slugged it out in Los Angeles in 1932. Villanueva bagged a bronze–beating Aikira Nakao of Japan and Joseph Lang of the US and losing to Horace Gwynne of Australia–and became the first Filipino ever to claim an Olympic medal in boxing.

Villanueva’s son Anthony, a featherweight, claimed a silver at the 1964 Tokyo Games. Lightflyweight Leopoldo Serrantes brought home a bronze at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Lightflyweight Roel Velasco also earned a bronze at the 1992 Barcelona Games and his brother Mansueto or Onyok, also a lightflyweight, picked up a silver at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

In all, the Philippines has sent 71 fighters to compete in 16 Olympics. Included in the roster are three-time Olympian Romeo Brin (1996, 2000, 2004) and two-timers Jose Padilla, Jr. (1932, 1936), Ernesto Parto (1948, 1952), Dominador Calumarde (1964, 1968), Rodolfo Arpon (1964, 1968), Leopoldo Cantancio (1984, 1988) and Roberto Jalnaiz (1988, 1992).

Eight Filipino pugs advanced to the quarterfinals but failed to make it to the semis. The hard-luck fighters were Jose Padilla, Jr. (1936), Simplicio de Castro (1936), Arpon (1964), Reynaldo Fortaleza (1976), Cantancio (1964), Jalnaiz (1992), Ronald Chavez (1992) and Elias Recaido (1996).

No Filipino has qualified for the quarterfinals, much less the semifinals, since Onyok Velasco and Recaido in 1996.

The biggest Filipino boxing contingents were the six who wore the national colors in 1964, 1988 and 1992. The Philippines sent five-man teams in 1936, 1948, 1952, 1956, 1968 and 1996.

So far, the Philippines has posted a 42-71 overall record in Olympic boxing. Filipino fighters failed to win a single bout in three Olympic shutouts–in 1956, 1960 and 1972. A single victory was registered in 1952, 1968 and 2000.

In Athens, the four Filipino boxers chalked up a 2-4 mark, a slight improvement from 1-4 in Sydney four years before. But it was hardly a consolation considering the contenders were badly beaten in their last outings. Picking up wins were lightflyweight Harry Tañamor (17-12 over Sherali Dostiev of Tajikistan) and lightwelterweight Romeo Brin (43-35 over Patrick Bogrere of Sweden). Tanamor wound up losing to Hong Moo Won, 42-25, and Brin to Manus Boonjumnong of Thailand, 29-15, in the second preliminaries. Blanked were flyweight Violito Payla (losing 36-26 to Tulashboy Doniyorov of Uzbekistan) and middleweight Chris Camat (losing 35-13 to Gaydarbek Gaydarbekov of Russia).

Flyweight Arlan Lerio was the only winner in Sydney. He stopped Jackson Akisu of Uganda at 1:40 of the second round before dropping a 70-69 countback decision to Andrzej Rzany of Poland.

Cantancio came closest to adding to the country’s medal haul in boxing. In 1984, he racked up three straight wins over Malawi’s Solomon Kondowe, Pakistan’s Kamran Dat and Nigeria’s Christopher Ossai before running into Korean Chun Chil Sung in the quarters. Cantancio was leading on points and 1 1/2 minutes away from a sure bronze when he got careless and took a vicious left hook on the jaw. He collapsed in a heap, struggled to his feet and stumbled into the ropes. Cuban referee Basulto Morales counted Cantancio out at 1:35 of the third round.

Four years later, Cantancio returned to the Olympics only to be dispatched in the opening preliminaries by Russian Kotsya Tszyu on a first round knockout. Tszyu is now the undisputed world superlightweight champion in the pro ranks. Two other Filipino Olympians were victimized by future world titlists. They were flyweight Ricardo Adolfo who bowed to Argentina’s Pascual Perez in 1948 and bantamweight Ricardo Fortaleza who was halted by Mexico’s Alfonso Zamora in 1972.

Several Filipino brothers have fought in the Olympics. There were the Padillas (Jose, Jr. and Carlos), the Fortalezas (Renato, Ricardo and Reynaldo), the Viceras (Isidro and Vicente), the Chavezes (Ronald and Arlo) and the Velascos (Roel and Onyok).

In the 1960 Rome Olympics, only flyweight Segundo Macalalad represented the country in boxing and it was a short-lived stint. He lost his first fight to Botta of Argentina on a 4-1 decision.

The Philippines piled up its most wins–nine–at the 1992 Games with Roel Velasco notching three (over Kenya’s James Wanene, India’s Rajendra Prasad and England’s Rowan Williams), flyweight Isidro Vicera one (over Czechoslovakia’s Stanislav Vagarsky), bantamweight Jalnaiz two (over the Dominican Republic’s Agustin Castillo and France’s Philippe Wartelle), lightweight Ronald Chavez two (over Egypt’s Emil Rezk and Canada’s Billy Irwin) and lightwelterweight Arlo Chavez one (over Nigeria’s James Moses).

The next most productive team had eight wins in 1964. Anthony Villanueva beat Italy’s Giovanni Girgenti, Tunisia’s Taher Ben Hassan, Poland’s Piotr Gutman and American Charlie Brown. Calumarde outpointed Taiwan’s Chi Ying Wang. Arpon outpointed Borge Krogh of Denmark and Englishman James Dunne. And welterweight Manfredo Alipala ousted Iraq’s Al Karkhi Khalid by disqualification.

Reynaldo Fortaleza had the easiest romp to the quarterfinals. In 1976, he drew a bye in the first preliminaries then won by default over Guyana’s Ivan Parris. Fortaleza also won by default in the third preliminaries. He blew a guaranteed silver by losing to England’s Pat Cowdell on a 4-1 decision in the quarterfinals.

The Philippines has employed foreign boxing coaches in past Olympics. American Eugene Menacho and Cubans Pedro Pacheco and Raul Liranza Fernandez called the shots for Filipino fighters before the local cast of Gregorio Caliwan, Nolito Velasco and Pat Gaspi took over after the Sydney Games.

Anthony Villanueva should’ve won a gold in 1964 but lost a 3-2 decision to Russia’s Stanislav Stephaskin in the featherweight finals. Boxing experts, including Ring Magazine founder Nat Fleischer and journalist Red Smith, called it a highway robbery. Onyok Velasco was also robbed of a gold in losing a highly-disputed 19-6 decision to Daniel Petrov Bojilov of Bulgaria in the lightflyweight finals in 1996.

With back-to-back medal shutouts in Sydney and Athens, the Philippines has fallen into hard times in Olympic boxing. How to engineer a reawakening is the challenge facing the leadership of the Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines.