History of boxing in the Philippines

The history of boxing in the Philippines is the history of boxing and the evolution and progress of the sport in the Philippines. In the Philippines, boxing is one of its most popular sports, together with basketball, due to the many accolades it has brought to the country, having produced 46 major world champions (including those of Filipino heritage), one of the most in the world. Despite not having won a gold medal in boxing, the Philippines has had multiple Olympic standouts, with 10 out of its 18 total Olympic medals coming from boxing, along with some of the greatest fighters in the history of the sport. Filipino greats like Pancho Villa and Flash Elorde are members of the two highly respected boxing hall of fames – International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) and World Boxing Hall of Fame (WBHF) thus, giving the Philippines the most number of Boxing Hall of Famers outside the United States.

Golden ages of Philippine boxing

Local folk narrative among martial arts circles claims that before the Spaniards and Americans came to the Philippines, Filipinos had their own kind of boxing known as suntukan,"bare-hand fighting" in Tagalog, (and similarly in other Philippine languages with the same meaning) generally believed to have evolved from sword and knife fighting techniques. During the Spanish colonization martial arts and fight sports were banned, so it was driven underground where the lack of swords, knives and rattan sticks led to fist fighting. Despite this claim, centuries old documents still need to be uncovered and translated for verification on whether or not the Philippine natives had a codified system of unarmed combat before boxing since there are no surviving reports and records of any kind of unarmed fighting in Luzon and Visayas practicing a system of empty-hand combat, apart only from local wrestling, as fighting only becomes a martial art if trainings are systematic and orderly, thus, "codified".

First golden age of Philippine boxing

The evolution of Philippine boxing began after when Spain ceded its colonial territories, namely Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines to the United States as agreed in the Treaty of Paris on 1898 which led to the Philippine–American War on 1899. Some reports state U.S. soldiers brought modern boxing to the Philippines, evidenced by a pair boxing gloves made by Sol Levinson of San Francisco. Another story tells of a renegade soldier brought some boxing gloves to Filipino prisoners and taught them how to use them.