Greatest Pound for Pound Fighters Philippines (Second of Two Installments)
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 01 Jun 2024
Gabriel 'Flash' Elorde.
The NBA/WBA Era
It was an entirely different era in pro boxing with just one international sanctioning body, the National Boxing Association or NBA, later known as the World Boxing Association or WBA recognizing just one world champion for each of the then original eight, later increased to nine weight divisions.
World championship bouts were for 15 rounds and weighins were held on the same day of the fight.
Getting a world title crack was rare and difficult for Asians, particularly Filipino boxers especially in the so called glamour divisions, i.e featherweight through the middleweight.
Since America was the mecca of boxing, it was necessary for Filipinos, especially during the Commonwealth period, to be based in the USA and under American fight promoters which was not hard as the Philippines was technically under the USA and American promoters were eager to discover native fighters for introduction in the lucrative US ring.
Some Filipino fighters therefore were given chance to fight for the world titles particularly in the lower weights against American or European champions with the sole exception of Ceferino Garcia who fought at and won a world title at middleweight.
After the war, fighters such as Dado Marino, Flash Elorde and Roberto Cruz had to barnstorm the US ring for the opportunity.
During this period, not many Filipinos were able to fight for the world championships and became world champion. But getting listed in the periodic WBA world ranking was honor enough.
World champions from the US and South America likewise gave opportunities for title challenge for ranked and unranked Filipino fighters with impressive credentials.
The few in the list below who did not win a world title or officially break into the WBA were examples of these Filipino fighters.
1. Gabriel Flash Elorde - Bay started at bantamweight where he won the Philippines and Oriental titles. He moved to the featherweights and despite failing in his Oriental title try, he impressed then world champion Sandy Saddler into fighting him in a non title bout in Manila which Elorde won on points. Saddler later gave Elorde a crack at his world title in the US which Elorde lost by TKO in view of Saddler's dirty tactics. In 1960, Elorde became the world junior lightweight champion which he held for seven years. Elorde challenged twice for the world lightweight championship but both times he lost to Puerto Rican great Carlos Ortiz.
2. Pancho Villa - Originally Francisco Guilledo, Villa was introduced to the American boxing fans and soon became the US champion and later world flyweight champion knocking out the legendary British Mighty Atom, Jimmy Wilde in New York. Villa rarely weighed above 110 lbs and was not leery fighting foes so much bigger than him like then bantamweight Jimmy McLarnin who would later become triple world champion at featherweight, lightweight and welterweight.
3. Small Montana - Originally Benjamin Jamito Gan,
Montana, who stood 5 feet and 4 inch tall and never weighed more than 112 pounds, won the Flyweight Championship of the World (as recognized by New York state). He also fought at bantamweight and beat world rated Manuel Ortiz, Midget Wolgast, Tony Marino Ortiz, Joe Tei Ken, Speedy Dado, Tommy Forte, Augie Curtis, Pat Palmer, Frankie Jarr, Eugene "Tuffy" Pierpont and Antol "Tony" Kocsis. He was recognized by the Time Magazine in its special issue commemorating the last 100 years as among the best little men of boxing of the 20th century.
4. Ceferino Garcia - Garcia started boxing at lightweight and soon moved to the welterweights where he challenged for the world title twice, against Barney Ross and the great Henry Armstrong, losing both on points. He moved up to the middleweight and won the world title by stopping Fred Apostoli. He remained the only Filipino and Asian to reign as world middleweight champion.
5. Little Dado - Originally Eleuterio Zapanta, Little Dado was one of the top Flyweights and Bantamweights in the world during the late 1930s and early 1940s. From 1938 until the end of his career in 1943, Dado was ranked in the top five in the Flyweight division by The Ring Magazine—attaining the #1 overall rating in 1939, during a time when the title was deemed vacant by The Ring. During his prime, Dado claimed both the World Flyweight and Bantamweight Titles, attaining recognition in California. Dado expressed a desire to win the Featherweight Title, hoping to become the second boxer to ever hold three different world titles simultaneously.
6. Dado Marino - Originally, Salvador Marino, Dado Marino was a Filipino flyweight boxer based in Hawaii who became world flyweight champion in 1950 beating Briton Terry Allen. He also campaigned in the bantamweight where he unsuccessfully challenged for the world crown.
7. Roberto Cruz - Cruz started at featherweight and became Philippine champion. He moved up in weight and fought at junior welterweight. On March 21, 1963, Cruz fought outside the Philippines for the first time as he travelled to the USA to fight Mexican boxer Battling Torres for the vacant WBA junior welterweight title. The fight took place at the Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Cruz, who was the underdog, knocked Torres out in the first round to win the title.
8. Dommy Ursua - The Philippines' version of the Toy Bulldog, Ursua was barely not even five feet and over a hundred pounds but went on to challenge for the world flyweight crown against the great Pascual Perez and the world bantamweight title versus the Raul Macias, champions who were virtually untouchables in those days.
9. Speedy Dado - Dado was born Diosdado B. Posadas in Manila on December 25, 1906. In an era when Asian boxers would often be referred to only by their nationality, he took the last two syllables of his birth name to use in the ring. In his career, he would be a top-rated contender for world titles in three separate weight divisions, flyweight, bantamweight and featherweight, and fought championship matches in each weight class. He won the California State bantamweight championships and held wins over Panama Al Brown and Midget Wolgast, among others.
10.Tanny Campo - Originally Estanislao del Campo, Tanny Campo was considered as the country's best alongside Danny Kid in the post war period, fighting between flyweight and bantamweight, getting to challenge for the world flyweight crown losing to Japan's first world champion Yoshio Shirai. He went on to fight the young Flash Elorde in a series of bouts which he lost but gave impression on Elorde. He fought as high as the featherweights against such boxers as Roberto Cruz and Sergio Campari.
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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