ACHIEVEMENTS
WBC Flyweight Champion
- 1970 Dec 7 – 1971 Dec 29
WBA Flyweight Champion
- 1975 Apr 1 – 1976 Feb 27
Hall of Fame
- 2018 – Philippine Sports Hall of Fame Inductee
BIOGRAPHY
Born on January 20, 1946, two-time world flyweight champion Erbito Salavarria punched his way into being one of the Philippine boxing greats during the 70s.
Starting his boxing career in 1963, Salavarria fought in local matches against fellow Filipino boxers, already displaying his prowess. At age 22, he claimed the Flyweight Championship title of the Philippines in 1968 from the two-time reigning champion Ric Magramo.
He would then win his first international title a year later against the then current Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation (OPBF) Flyweight title holder Japanese boxer Takeshi Nakamura via a technical knockout.
This opened a pathway of opportunities for Salavarria to add more titles under his belt as he bagged his second international title in 1970 against Chartchai Chionoi, afterwards emerging as the new World Boxing Council (WBC) Flyweight Champion.
Erbito’s reign was short-lived as he was stripped of the title a year after when he fought Betulio Gonzalez in November 1971. The match resulted in a fifteen-round draw which would later on be decided to be a win in favor of the legendary Venezuelan boxer.
After an unsuccessful attempt at reclaiming the title, he went after a different title in 1975, facing WBA Flyweight champion Japanese Susumu Hanagata, whom he had previously faced in defense of Salavarria’s then WBC Flyweight title.
He triumphed against the Japanese boxer to hold the WBA Flyweight title for a year, before going to the hands of his familiar foe – Panama’s Alfonso Lopez in February of 1976.
This would serve as Erbito’s second to the last fight. On his comeback in 1978, Salavarria ended his boxing career after a knockout loss against reigning WBC Flyweight champion Netrnoi Sor Vorasingh of Thailand.
He had a total of 54 bouts in his whole boxing career, 40 of which are wins, 11 knockouts and 3 resulting in draws.
The Philippine Sports Commission named Salavarria as a Philippine Sports Hall of Famer in 2018.