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Ben Villaflor


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Ben Villaflor surely belongs in the pantheon of the best boxers from the Phillippines, even though he's probably the least talked about of them today. This two-time world champion at super featherweight was a hard-hitting southpaw who turned professional at only 13 years of age, which must be a world record. As a result, he retired young, at only 24. But despite that, he had a good and successful career, scoring 56 victories and losing just 6 times, with 6 fights ending as draw. In those 56 victories, 31 came by knockout. Since 1971, he lives in/on Hawaii.

 

Ben Villaflor was born 10 November 1952 in Zamboanga City, Zamboanga del Sur province, Philippines. As mentioned, he debuted professionally at 13, in October 1966, beating a fellow-debutante Flash Javier by a 4-round decision. He won his first 12 bouts until losing to debutant Roger Boy Pedrano by UD8 in July 1967. Only 3 months later he lost to him that same way in the rematch. He lost a couple more fights the next year but then started an unbeaten streak of 26 fights, beating former WBA-challenger "Irish" Frankie Crawford by a TKO in one round after putting him down three times, in January 1972, before he received his first world title shot on 25 April that year against Alfredo Marcano of Venezuela, who had taken the WBA title from Hiroshi Kobayashi and was making his second defense. Marcano was also a rather hard hitter like Villaflor but the fight went the scheduled distance of 15 rounds and Villaflor won by a mostly wide unanimous decision to lift his first world title belt. The fight took place in Blaisdell Centre, Honolulu, where Villaflor had moved a year ago, so he was on home ground. He had one fight at the lightweight limit which he won by TKO3 against Carlos Fernandez before he made his first defense of the WBA title against Victor Federico Echigaray of Argentina. Also this fight went the distance but this time the judges were divided, one judge scored the fight for each his fighter while the third had it even, resulting in Villaflor retaining his title with a draw. He then had a couple more fights above the 130 limit and won both before he made his second defense against Kuniaki Shibata of Japan, who was the former WBC featherweight champion and had stopped the great Vicente Saldivar. The fight was very close and competitive and after 15 completed rounds, Shibata emerged as the winner by a very narrow decision. Villaflor and his manager thought the decision was unfair and demanded a rematch.

 

After two more tune-up fights at 135, which he won by knockout, Villaflor was thirsty for revenge and again took on Shibata in October 1973. This time there would be no doubt who the winner was, since Villaflor produced his most satisfactory victory by knocking Shibata out in one round, with one punch and the fight ended at 1 minute 56 seconds. It was the best revenge one could possibly hope for. In his next fight he went for the first time abroad since he became a champion when he travelled to Toyama in Japan to defend against Apollo Yoshio and again had to settle for a draw after 15 hard fought rounds. Since all judges were from Japan, it is not inconceivable that the decision might have been a hometown one. In his next fight on 24 August, he faced another Japanese called Yasutsune Uehara, this time in Honolulu and had much less trouble with this Japanese, dispatching him by KO 2. Uehara was down once in round 1 and twice in round 2. He then went for the first time to USA and fought a lightweight called Ray Lunny III in Daly City, California, but the fight was stopped in the 6th round after an accidental headbutt caused a cut above Villaflor's left eye. Villaflor had dropped Lunny once in the second round before that. He then went for the first time to his homeland to defend his title against Korean Hyun-Chi Kim on 13 March 1975. Though he put Kim down three times in the 9th, he was unable to put him away and the dodgy Korean gave him a hard fight otherwise which finally ended with a split decision for the champion. He didn't fight again until January next year when he again went to Japan and beat Morito Kashiwaba by KO13 in Korakuen Hall in Tokyo. He had Kashiwaba down in the second and third round before the knockout.

 

And then came his nemesis, the Puerto Rican Samuel Serrano, who was exactly the same age as he. The fight happened on 13 April in Blaisdell Centre and for the third time in his time as world champion, the fight ended as a draw and he retained his WBA title for the fifth time. He had one non-title fight at 135 where he beat Rogelio Castaneda by UD10 before rematching Serrano on 16 October, at Hiram Bithom stadium in San Juan, Puerto Rico. This time there was only one judge, the referee Stanley Christodoulou and after the fight went the distance, he scored it for the home favorite by 147-141 and thus, Villaflor's tenure as world champion was over. It was also be his last fight as he retired after that. Today he works as a boxing manager and has also been appointed as seargant at arms for the Hawaiian State Senate.

Edited by BoztheMadman
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