The Bout Outside The Ring: Boxing and the Filipino Struggle for Legitimacy
By Emmanuel Rivera, RRT
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 03 Aug 2025
The Yanks arrived with rifles, rations, and something they called civilization. So did the Conquistadores Españoles centuries earlier… only theirs came with swords, cannons, and religion. Not everything they brought wore a uniform. Some things were quite literally foreign— like the blood sport where two men squared up and traded punches until one gave in. To most Filipinos, it made little sense, and it struck a nerve.
May 1, 1898. The battleships roared across Manila Bay. In just a few hours, Admiral George Dewey’s fleet crushed the Spanish Armada. The war ended one empire but opened the door to another. The Americans had arrived, not as liberators, but as the next in line.
Soon after the fall of Manila, American brass issued a clarion call for sports. The Army rolled out baseball. The Navy pushed boxing. They claimed it would keep everyone in line— soldiers, local subjects, everyone. Moral uplift, great for the body and soul, they said. Baseball faded. Boxing flourished.
Circumvention
Promoters found ways to avoid detection and fines. Clubs became “private.” Temporary membership fees got you through the door. Ads hinted at what was really happening. Pay your peso, become an associate member for a day, and a boxing fan forever. Training continued too. It just went deeper into the back alleys, the borrowed corners, the quiet rooms.
How Things Changed
By 1920, the silence broke. One U.S. headline shouted: “Boxing Gloves Supplant Knives in Philippines.” It was a crude analysis, but something tangible had shifted for the better. Old grudges were being handled in new ways. Instead of bolos, disputes were now settled through fisticuffs. The Manly Art, they and their English forebears— called it.
Source: Philippine Supreme Court E-Library
And then came 1921.With Act No. 2984, boxing was legalized— officially. Promoters had to register. Rules were set. Medical checks became part of the game. Gloves, rounds, referees— it all got written down. Boxing had rules now and receipts.
Across the Ocean: A Parallel Fight for Legitimacy
What was happening in the Philippines wasn’t happening in a vacuum. Across the Pacific, New York was facing its own fight outside the ring. Prizefighting had been banned there as early as 1859. Laws came and went like shifting tides. The Horton Law of 1896 gave boxing a brief breath, but it was shut down again by 1900 under the Lewis Law. For two decades, boxing lived in the shadows.
But it didn’t disappear. Not in New York, and not in Manila. In both places, promoters bent the rules without breaking them. “Clubs” popped up, where membership— often bought at the door— gave you access to what was clearly a fight. Decisions were outlawed in New York at one point. Mixed-race bouts were even banned. Some called it reform. Others saw control.
Then came 1920. In New York, the Walker Law brought boxing out of the shadows. It created a commission to regulate the sport, enforce rules, and issue licenses. Fighters had to be examined by doctors. Gloves, weights, even ticket prices were standardized. Just like that, boxing became legitimate.
The Philippines passed Act No. 2984 just months later. It wasn’t a copy, but the mirror image was undeniable. Both laws aimed to protect the fighters and the crowd, but also to keep the sport in line. Both moved boxing from outlaw to institution…From a sideline hustle to a sanctioned profession.
And just like that, boxing had rules. Not just rules of the ring but rules of survival. In New York, kids under 21 couldn’t go more than six rounds. In Manila, the rules were stricter than before but also more clear. The sport had structure. And that meant it had a future. Two places. Two systems. One story. Boxing refused to stay buried. It adapted. It waited. And when the law caught up, the fighters were still there…and ready
Unidentified Aspiring Filipino Boxers, Circa 1910-1916, (Source: Collection of Philippine Boxing Historical Society and Hall of Fame)
As Fate Would Have It
The ban did not totally kill the fight game. More than anything, it gave the sport roots. Boxing became more than mere sport. It became a way out, a way up for Filipino and American pugilists alike… A chance to prove something— even if no one believed in you. And even after the papers were signed, after it all became legal, the real spirit of it stayed the same.
Filipino boxers and their adherents kept stepping in, ready for the setto. Whatever purpose the sport once served, we Pinoys gave it soul. The Sweet Science became more than a contest— it became something we Filipinos could rightfully, to this day, call our own.
Sources, Acknowledgments, and Recommended Readings:
• Attached photos and likeness of American soldiers and sailors are in the public domain, and some are from the collection and courtesy of the Philippine Boxing Historical Society, shared by Philboxing.com, and are re-reprinted for non-commercial use
• OUR NAVY— STANDARD PUBLICATION— of the UNITED STATES NAVY (Anniversary Issue) Mid-May, 1923 (Public Domain) and First Issue of May 1922
• Philippine Supreme Court E-Library
• This article contains selected excerpts, quotations, images, and archival references used under the Fair Use provisions of Section 107 of the United States Copyright Act. These materials are presented for educational, scholarly, and cultural preservation purposes. Every effort has been made to properly attribute sources and limit use to what is necessary to honor the historical and cultural narrative.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Emmanuel Rivera, RRT.
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