The 19 year old boxer who became a
household name in 1964 with his unprecedented and historic triumph at the Tokyo
Olympics was born Anthony N. Villanueva (b. 18 March 1945) to
parents Flora Narvaez and Jose “Cely” Villanueva, an Olympian bronze
medalist in bantamweight boxing at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics.
His pugilist father influenced his
interest in boxing. As a 5 year old, his father gifted him with small barbells
and boxing gloves which became Anthony’s favorite “toys”. At age 17, the
clean-cut Villanueva enrolled at the Far Eastern University which
had an outstanding college boxing program. Boxing aficionado and businessman Eugenio Puyat saw his potential
and supported him, such that by 1962, at age 17, the teen became a national sensation when he won the Bantamweight title at the National Open Championships.
This led to his being drafted to the national
boxing pool, and 2 years later, he qualified as part of the Philippine boxing
squad to the 1964 Tokyo Olympics along with welterweight Manfredo
Alipala, flyweight Dominador Calumarde, bantamweight Arnulfo
Torrevillas, lightweight Rodolfo Arpon and light middleweight Felix
Ocampo, under coach Aling Enriquez.
It was an exciting time for the young Villanueva
as he embarked on his quest for Olympic boxing gold. He was just 19, the same age
as his father when he had won his bantamweight bronze in Los Angeles, 32
years earlier. Before he left, Anthony vowed to break his father’s 3rd
place finish which had remained unbroken for more than 2 decades.
Almost
golden.
The 40-man Philippine delegation
prepared for action as shortly after the games opened on 10 October 1964 in Tokyo,
Japan—the first Olympics to be held in Asia. The Boxing events went
underway on October 13 at the Kora Kuen Ice Palace with 32 boxers in the
featherweight division, from 32 countries. Villanueva won his opening
bout against Italy’s Giovanni Girgenti on points, and moved on to
dispose of Tunisia’s Tasser Ben Hasssen 4-1, but wounding his
right eyebrow in the process.
The Quarterfinals round saw him
flooring Poland’s Pyotr Gutman thrice, winning the bout by RSC
( Referee Stops Contest). In what everybody thought was to be a tough Semifinal
round against the much-heralded George Brown of the U.S., Villanueva—despite
fighting with cut brows—defeated the favorite with a 4-1 upset decision. Villanueva
thus guaranteed himself a silver medal, thus fulfilling his fearless
prediction of surpassing his father’s feat.
Of that very controversial Finals
against Russia’s Stanislav Stepashkin held on Oct. 23, reporter Hal
Drake of the U.S. paper ‘Stars and Stripes’ recounts: “He
(Villanueva) was rated little chance in his bout with Stepashkin, who has
shoulders like a medieval axman and a punch like a thrown brick. The Russian
had easily disposed of every opponent.
At the bell, Villanueva rushed
Stepashkin and reddened his nose with a beautiful series of stabbing rights. He
hooked the right twice and made Stepashkin hold. He brought fans to their feet
by staggering the Soviet boxer with a left to the head.
In the second round the two mixed it
up in close, with hooks. In one flurry, the bandage came off Villanueva's eye
in a smear of blood and the claret gushed from his nose. But that right was
arcing over and still landing; Stepashkin was getting one, and sometimes more,
for everyone he landed.
Villanueva's opponent must have been
a hazy figure in a red blur during the final round, but he still met the
Russian punch for punch. The blood covered all of Villanueva's face and
streaked his opponent's arms after clinches. But the Russian finished that last
round with his left eye cut, his right eye: half closed, his nose and one ear
streaming blood. “
But when the judges’ scores were
announced, the audience were in disbelief. The Italian judge Aniello,
Khalife of Lebanon and Vuellaty of Tunisia scored it for the Russian
while Maghraby of Egypt had it 59-58 for Villanueva and Nussgen
of Germany saw it even at 59-all. A roar of protest went up when British
referee R.H. Gittins raised Stepashkin's hand, with the 3-1-1
verdict.
Nat Fleischer, founder/editor of Ring Magazine said, “I have seen
highway robbery before but not anything as bare-faced as this.”. Peter Wilson of the London Daily News
could only agree, called it “one of the worst decisions I have seen in the
Olympics.” Jose “Peping” Cojuangco, who was at the ringside in
Tokyo, recalled, “He won convincingly. The editor of Ring Magazine
who was in front of us, was already congratulating us. But when the decision
was announced, there was a howl.”
The crowd of 7,000 chanted Villanueva’s
name to show their support for the big-hearted Filipino boxer who fought to the
finish. It was said that fans jeered as the Soviet national anthem was played, while
Villanueva shed tears.
Homecoming
and silver linings
Nevertheless, Villanueva came home to a hero’s welcome—for achieving the
highest-placed finish for a Filipino athlete in Philippine Olympic history. He
was mobbed by people at his motorcade that crowded the Pasay-Manila-Quezon
route. His school honored him with a Tamaraw Gold Medallion given by
then Far Eastern University Vice-President Alfredo M. Reyes.
With his schoolboy looks, Villanueva was
squired by movie producers, which he accepted on the prodding of his father. He
starred in at least 5 action movies, including the boxing-inspired “Pamatay:
Kaliwa't Kanan” (1964) with Nida
Blanca, for which he was paid a whopping Php 100,000. He also starred in “The
Salonga Brothers” (1965) with Joseph Estrada, "Fighting
Fists" (1971) with Roberto Gonzales, and "Ang
Berdugo at ang Kamao." Later, his professional fees dwindled from
between P2,000 to P7,000 per film.
Advertisers also sought out the
acclaimed star major boxer, who signed up with two clients. 1966,Villanueva did
an ad for La Tondeña Natural Rum. He also appeared in a Terylene
fabric ad that was part of a campaign series featuring active men in heroic James
Bond-like roles, attired in dashing, but durable Terylene suits.
As he lost his amateur status due to his
lucrative acting career, Villanueva turned
professional in 1965, debuting in a fund-raising event called “Fiesta
Fistiana” at the Araneta Coliseum, matched against the Japanese,
Shigeo Nirasawa. He would hang his boxing gloves after only 5 luster-less
bouts, which ended in 1 win, 3 losses and 1 no-contest. His last fight was in
1975, against Australian Ross Eadie, which he lost via TKO.
Forsaken
dreams, forgotten champion.
When his boxing and acting days were
over, Villanueva became a boxing
coach much like his father, until 1976, when he decided to go find his future
in the U.S. By then, he was married with 2 kids, Avery (named after International
Olympic Committee President Avery Brundage) and Agatha. There,
he took on a variety of jobs—as a Mexican restaurant cook, and as a security
guard at a Staten Island hospital and at the Philippine Consulate in New
York.
A 1988 coaching stint in the Philippines
proved unproductive, so he returned to the U.S. after failing to find a stable
job. He would father another son, Jose Giovanni with his second wife in 1996. A short while later, Villanueva permanently come home to
the Philippines to stay with his third partner Liezel Beldia with whom he shares son Joey Rembrandt.
They took up residence in Kamuning, Quezon City,
Beginning in 1999, he suffered a series
of strokes that left him incapacitated. He had hoped to return to the U.S. to
fix his citizenship papers and then set up a gym business. To help defray the
cost of his hospitalization, he offered his Olympic Medal for sale for 1
million pesos. Bedridden, he died in his sleep, penniless and almost
forgotten on 13 May 2014, in Cabuyao,
Laguna, at age 69. Manny Pacquiao hailed him as "original Filipino boxing icon who should
never be forgotten by the nation."
Anthony N. Villanueva lived to see himself inducted in the Philippines Sports Hall of
Fame for bringing the first historic Olympic silver for the country.
It would take Mansueto “Onyok” Velasco another 32 years to duplicate his
silver medal feat at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics when he placed 2nd behind Bulgarias' Daniel Petrov, in the light-flyweight division.
SOURCES:
“He vowed to
break his father’s record, “ Sunday Times Magazine, 8 November, 1964,
“Golden reception
for a silver medalist,” Sunday Times Magazine”, 15 November 1964, p. 28
Anthony N.
Villanueva, wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Villanueva
Games of the
XVIII Olympiad, Tokyo 1964 : the official report of the Organizing Committee, LA
Digital Library, https://digital.la84.org/digital/collection/p17103coll8/id/27912/
Hal Drake,
Frazier chases German for boxing gold, Stars and Stripes, Oct. 25, 1964 medal, https://www.stripes.com/news/1964-10-25/frazier-chases-german-for-boxing-gold-medal-1894367.html1
Joaquin
Henson, “Villanueva selling Olympic Medal for 1 Million”, Philippine Star, 6
January 2000, https://www.philstar.com/sports/2000/01/06/97733/villanueva-selling-olympic-medal-p1-million
Joaquin
Henson, “Forgotten hero at death’s door”. The Philippine Star , 11 May 2014,https://www.philstar.com/sports/2014/05/11/1321865/forgotten-hero-deaths-door
Joaquin
Henson, “Olympic hero interred today”, Philboxing.com, 18 May 2014, http://m.philboxing.com/news/story-95534.html
ABS-CBN,
‘Villanueva’s death puts spotlight on poor, retired athletes”, https://news.abs-cbn.com/sports/05/15/14/villanuevas-death-puts-spotlight-poor-retired-athletes
Movie
Poster, “Sports Heroes Turned Movie Stars, Video 48, https://video48.blogspot.com/2007/02/sports-heroes-turned-movie-stars-1.html
Far Eastern
University FB page, https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=987760150052219&id=100064547295619&set=a.631930875635150&locale=ko_KR
Isa Munang Patalastas, blogspot. "Is That Who I think He Is?: Anthony Villanueva for La Tondena Rum and Terylene. isamunangpatalastas.blogspot.com
