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Philippines, 19 Apr 2025 |
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REMEMBERING ANTHONY VILLANUEVA By Eddie Alinea PhilBoxing.com Fri, 16 May 2014  Boxer Anthony Villanueva, who fought as a featherweight when he gifted the country its first of only two Olympics silver medals, was actually a protege of his father ? himself a bronze medalist in the quadrennial conclave called ?The Greatest Sports Show On Earth.? Jose ?Cely? Villanueva ended up the third best bantamweight during the 1932 Olympic Games held in Los Angeles where the Philippines came up with its finest performance following high jumper Simeon Toribio?s and swimmer Teofilo Yldefonso?s similar bronze medal harvest. Yldefonso?s, incidentally, was the Piddig, Ilocos Norte pride?s second, having first won his hardware in the 200-meter breaststroke event four years earlier in Amsterdam. Cely must have considered his achievement not good enough for that feat proved to be the launching pad for a noble objective of doing better, if not by him, at least through his son. He was to see that dream fulfilled 34 years later in 1964 in Tokyo where the clean-cut, school boy-looking Anthony, ?Boy? to his family relatives, close friends and the boxing world, ended up with the silver medal, hacking out four straight victories on the way to losing the gold medal to Soviet Union?s Stanislav Stephaskin in a close but controversial 3-2. The elder Villanueva, his dream of an Olympic finish higher than his bronze still burning in his heart, used to train professional and amateur fighters to earn a living in those times. His most prominent pupil in his career was then Filipino reigning world junior-lightweight champion Gabriel ?Flash? Elorde, a Hall of Famer and the only man to rule the 130-pound division for unprecedented seven long years. Cely?s son Anthony, who succumbed to a lingering illness Tuesday in his house in Cabuyao, Laguna, would join Elorde later, becoming the first Filipino in any sport, for that matter, to bring home a silver medal. Another boxer Mansueto, ?Onyok? Velasco duplicated that feat 32 years later in 1996 in Atlanta raising the Philippines? medal harvest to nine in official count, including to a pair of silver medals and seven bronze medals, including the two other by simonpures Leopoldo Serrantes (1998 in Seoul)) and Roel Velasco (1992 in Barcelona). The country though owns an unofficial gold medal in bowling through the efforts of pintoppler Arianne Cerdena, also in 1998 and a pair of bronze medals in taekwondo courtesy of Stephen Fernandez and guymnast-turned-jin Bea Lucero, now wife of softball association president Jean Henri Lhuillier, also in Barcelona. With the way Anthony submitted himself to rigors of training from the time Cely introduced him to boxing in his early age, it could be gleaned that the father?s dream rubbed on the son. The father-and-son tandem?s target, of course, was the gold medal which they manifested which Cely himself was very vocal about every time they left their apartment at 83-A Annapolis St. in Quezon City to work on the road then, later in the day, at the Elorde Gym in Sucat, Paranaque or wherever the world champ was training for a fight. Anthony would not have been an Olympic star had it not been to his father?s desire for him to be a fighter in his very formative years. Cely loved to reminisced Anthony?s elation in receiving a pair of boxing gloves as gift when he was only four years old. Of a time when a fire broke out in the neighborhood and Anthony?s only thought was to save the precious present. When Anthony announced to the family that he earned a slot a member of the Far Eastern University boxing team giving him the chance to become a champion someday, the happiest man was Cely. For winning the National Open amateur bantamweight title in 1962, he was selected member of the Philippine team at age 17 and rewarded the country the gold medal in his division the following year in the Asian Boxing Championship in Taipei. Interestingly nearly didn?t make it to the Tokyo trip when he was knocked down by veteran Philippine Navy campaigner Jose Ramirez in the first round of the elimination and had to show determined resolve to eke out a 3-2 decision into advance to the finals of the Olympic trials. The same will and determination he carried to Tokyo in hacking out three straight victory to advance to the silver medal play in the semifinal round against American by the name of Charlie Brown, a namesake of that lovable Peanuts cartoon character of Cincinnati. Earlier, the high school student at FEU, demolished Giovanni Girgente of Italy, 3-2, Taher Ben Hassen of Tunisia, 4-1, who inflicted him a cut in his eyebrow, before knocking out Piotr Gutman of Poland in only the first round. His 4-1 triumph over Brown did not actually look that easy as the score suggested for Anthony, again had to call on his will and determination when the cut inflicted in his opening round bout with Girgente re-occurred right in the first round. British referee, Dr. Joseph Blonstein, according to newspaper accounts, stepped in and stopped the fight to have the Filipino?s injury examined and declare him a loser should it turned out serious. Luckily it wasn?t and Blonstein signaled the protagonists to continue. The injury only turned the southpaw Boy into a ferocious fighter who threw right jabs to the head and stinging lefts and short straights to win the round. The next two rounds were no different as Anthony completely showed the way to his game but outclassed opponent with all judges. except one saw Boy the winners ? Ion Boampa of Romania (60-57), J. H. Common of Fiji (60-56) and E. P. Jitcher of Hungary (69-58). Ben Brit of the Netherlands scored it 59-alll although he confessed later he was inclined to give the bout to Boy. ?Son, the gold within reach. Please win for the Philippines,? was Cely?s message to Anthony made through the wires after the bout. In the gold medal bout held October 20, 1964 at the majetic Korakuen Ice Palace, Anthony appeared the stronger fighter, landing the more telling blows. Despite Boy?s unrelenting attacks, Stephaskin never slowed down, though reason why the judges scored the fight thus: 60-58 by the Italian, 60-59 by the Lebanese, 60-58 by the Tunesian, all for the Russian. The Egyptian judge and his German counterpart had it in identical 59-58 verdicts, both for Anthony. And so the young Villanueva settled for the silver, but that didn?t hamper the warm reception accorded him by his countrymen, from the simple men and women on the streets to the highest official of the land, headed by then President Diosdado Macapagal. All through the motorcade from the Manila International Airport down the sunset strip of Roxas Bouvelard to Escolta, there were pandemonium and hail of confetti. Fans raised aloft banners saying MABUHAY!. From the din among the six-deep welcomers along the way, a strident voice was heard shouting ?VILLANUEVA FOR PRESIDENT! Puyat for Vice ?.?Despite threat of losing his amateur status, Anthony fell victim to the lure of moviedom and made a film with Nida Blanca titled ?Malakas, Kaliwa?t kanan.? Another film ?Salaonga Brothers? with soon-to-be San Juan Mayorz, Senator, Vice President, President and now Mayor of Manila followed before ending his short stint as an actor in the film ?Pancho Villa Story.? He turned pro at age 20 a year after coming back home from the Tokyo Olympic Games but never really make his mark as a prizefighter. On October 2, 1965, several days short of his silver medal anniversary, he fought Japanese Shigeo Nirasawa in a Fiesta Fistiana card of the Philippine Sportswriters Association, an annual fund-raising event for disabled boxer that proved to be a flop. A failure in both his movie and pro careers, Anthony had to go back-and-forth to the United States to earn a living and even try to sell his silver medal. He died poor as a rat and could not even get enough help from the government, financial or otherwise, to completely recover from lingering illnesses as a result of a stroke he suffered a few years back since returning from the U.S. for good. Click here to view a list of other articles written by Eddie Alinea.  |
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