ACHIEVEMENTS

World Super Featherweight Champion

• 1960 March 16 – 1967 June 15

WBA Super Featherweight Champion

• 1962 August 20 – 1967 June 15

WBC Super Featherweight Champion

• 1963 February 14 – 1967 June 15

Hall of Fame

• 1993 – International Boxing Hall of Fame Inductee
• 1988 – World Boxing Hall of Fame Inductee
• 2010 – Philippine Sports Hall of Fame Inductee

BIOGRAPHY

Born on March 25, 1935, sports icon Gabriel “Flash” Elorde would turn the tide for the country, breaking the 20-year-old world boxing championship drought.

Flash Elorde grew up from a family with 15 children. At the young age of 16, Elorde would learn boxing from his good friend, former professional boxer Lucio Laborte. Laborte taught the young Elorde the basics of the sport, and Elorde wholeheartedly embraced it.

The Cebu-raised Elorde would then put these skills to the test as he faced Kid Gonzaga in his professional debut in 1951. On his debut, Elorde won the national bantamweight title against Tanny Ocampo.

During the span of his boxing career, Elorde was known for his “subtle little temple-dancer moves”, hence his nickname in the ring “Flash Elorde”. He reigned supreme in the middleweight division, and continued to until 1967.

In all those years, Elorde collected and retained his world boxing titles, specifically the super featherweight title that until now, he is considered the longest title holder in the said division. Elorde held the world super featherweight title for seven years.

One of the iconic matches Elorde had was with the American professional boxer Sandy Saddler in 1956 for the world featherweight title. The boxing community sided with the Flash even when Saddler retained his title as the world featherweight champion due to the match being stopped after a bad cut suffered by Elorde.

The potential of Elorde was evident, which would later be realized four years later.

At the inaugural WBC super featherweight championship in 1960, Elorde ended the country’s 20-year world championship drought in boxing. Elorde then faced the defending world champion Harold Gomes. The 30,000 crowd at the newly built Araneta Coliseum bore witness to the historic win for the country by Flash Elorde.

Elorde retained the world super featherweight title from 1960 until 1967, where he was dethroned by Yoshiaki Numata.

Elorde retired with a record of 88 wins and until now, Elorde is still considered as one of the greatest fighters to hail from the Asia-Pacific region. As such, he had been inducted into different Hall of Fames. One of which is the International Boxing Hall of Fame wherein he is the first Filipino to ever be inducted into it in 1993. He was also recognized by the World Boxing Hall of Fame, and was inducted into the 1988 batch. Elorde was also among the first batch of inductees in the country’s own Sports Hall of Fame.