Elorde Blended Western Boxing With Ancient Filipino Martial Art, Eskrima
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 25 Mar 2024
In this age of modern or so called scientific boxing, it is heart warming and rather pride boosting to learn that Gabriel Flash Elorde successfully combined Western style boxing with an old Filipino martial art known as eskrima, also known as kali and arnis.
The influence of eskrima to his boxing was very notable especially in his prime years, prompting a Western writer Robert Lipstye to describe his style as the "subtle little temple dancer moves" A southpaw, Elorde was known for his boxing skills and speed.
The young Gabriel studied Balintawak Eskrima from his father "Tatang" Elorde who was the Eskrima champion of Cebu, from whom he learned his innovative footwork and maneuvers.
Meanwhile, Elorde learned boxing from a friend, Lucio Laborte, a former professional boxer. Laborte taught him how to box, and Elorde quickly learned the sport and pursued his dream to become a boxer. At the time he was only 16 years old.
Elorde started professional boxing soon after and with his unique boxing style, within a year, Elorde was able to win the Philippine bantamweight title. His potential was evident: he was a solidly built southpaw whose major asset was his quick hands and relentless body attack on his opponents.
In his first 14 fights, he suffered 2 defeats with 1 draw before coming into his own. He defeated Tanny Campo and Hiroshi Horiguchi both in 12-round decisions to win the Philippine and Oriental bantamweight titles respectively.
It's not all success for Elorde though as he also suffered successive defeats particularly against a Japanese named Shigeji Kaneko who beat him five times, once for the Oriental featherweight crown. He just shrugged off those losses and many years later, his widow Laura explained rather jokingly that "it was hard for Bay to win against five opponents--his opponent, the referee and the judges--- in Japan".
But his potentials and unique fighting style intrigued no less than then world featherweight champion Sandy Saddler to fighting him in Manila in 1955 in a non title bout. Note that Saddler easily beat Kaneko earlier via 6th round KO in Japan hence he perhaps thought disposing off Elorde will not be a problem.
But Elorde surprised Saddler and beat him by unanimous decision at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum with American scoring referee Jack Sullivan scoring it 8 rounds to 2 for Elorde.
In 1956, he was given a rematch with Saddler, this time with Saddler's featherweight title on the line. However, Elorde suffered a cut in his eye and lost the fight on a 13th-round TKO. Many boxing experts criticized Saddler, known as a very rough and vicious fighter, for the result of the bout. Jack Fiske of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote: "It was a dirty fight throughout and all the onus must be on the 126-pound champion's skinny shoulders. From this corner, it appeared highly improbable that he could have successfully defended the title ... if he hadn't resorted to all the so-called tricks in and out of the rule book".
The fight could have taken so much from Saddler as a few months after he announced his retirement from boxing.
But Elorde was far from done.
Four years later, he won the world super featherweight title on March 16, 1960, by knocking out the defending world champion Harold Gomes in seven rounds. That night, Elorde ended the country's 20-year world championship drought. The crowd estimated to be around 30,000, inside the newly built Araneta Coliseum, rushed into the ring after seeing Gomes go down to his knees at the one-minute-50-second mark of the seventh round. The event happened two decades after compatriot Ceferino Garcia, known as the father of the 'bolo punch', lost the middleweight division he lorded over until 1940.
Elorde floored Gomes in the second round with a right hook to the head. The Filipino challenger knocked down the 25-year-old Gomes again in the third and in the fifth, sending him over the ring's lower rope at the end of the round. In the next round, Gomes mounted a brief comeback, but at the start of the seventh, Elorde hammered him again, connecting with rights to the head followed by a left to the jaw that sent him down once more. Gomes got up but was floored again after receiving a combination of lefts and rights. He then met a series of combinations that led Referee Barney Ross to count him out. When Gomes recovered, he went to Elorde's corner and whispered: "It was a good fight".
He defended the crown 10 times notably against Sergio Caprari, Terou Kosaka, Johnny Bizzaro, Kang-Il Suh & Love Allotey until June 15, 1967, where he lost a majority decision to Yoshiaki Numata of Japan. This made him the longest-reigning world junior lightweight champion ever (seven years and three months).
Elorde also challenged lightweight Carlos Ortiz for his world title on two occasions. He was stopped both times by Ortiz in the 14th round.
Elorde retired with a record of 88 wins (33 KOs), 27 losses and 2 draws. He is considered the greatest super featherweight champion of all time in WBC history.
Elorde's style from eskrima has been adopted by many boxers, and he shared it with his friend Muhammad Ali who was then preparing for his title defense in Manila in 1975, which influenced his out-boxer style of boxing.
References: Flash Elorde, Wikipedia; Boxrec: Sandy Saddler; Shigeji Kaneko
The author Teodoro Medina Reynoso is a veteran boxing radio talk show host living in the Philippines. He can be reached at teddyreynoso@yahoo.com and by phone 09215309477.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Teodoro Medina Reynoso.
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