Farewell to a Pinoy Olympic boxing icon

Filipino Olympic hero Anthony Villanueva died on Tuesday after a long bout with a heart ailment. He was 69.

Villanueva, who was already bedridden after suffering a third stroke in 2012, died in his sleep in their home in Cabuyao town in Laguna.

He became a national hero after settling for the silver medal in the 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympic Games where he lost to Stanislav Stepashkin of the then Soviet Union in the finals of the featherweight division finals.

Villanueva is the son of former amateur boxer Jose, who won the Philippines a bronze medal in the bantamweight division of the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics.

He experienced rough times and was even forced to put his Olympic silver medal for sale just to help augment the rising cost of his medical bills.

Villanueva, who also had a brief stint as a professional boxer and even tried acting in the late 1960s, has also been receiving a monthly pension of P7,000 from the Philippine Sports Commission.

No one dared to buy the medal because of its historic value and as a sign of respect for the efforts made by Villanueva just to win it. The medal is now enshrined at the Philippine Sports Commission museum in Manila.

The Philippines won its second silver medal courtesy of Mansueto “Onyok” Velasco in the 1996 Atlanta Games after losing to Bulgarian Daniel Petrov in the light-flyweight division finals.

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