roger ladon boxing

RIO DE JANEIRO – Rogen Ladon took up boxing in 2007 and joined the national team in 2009 dreaming that one day he’d make it to the Olympics. That day has arrived. The native of Bago City in Negros Occidental, the hotbed of amateur boxing in the Philippines, said being here in Rio is just a dream come true.

He was too young to have seen Mansueto Velasco’s silver medal finish in the light-flyweight division of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

But he admitted idolizing “Onyok,” who also hails from Bago City, along with another Velasco, Roel, who bagged the bronze in 1992 in Barcelona.

Ladon is entered in the same lightflyweight class, and is determined to bring home a medal like the Velasco brothers. “Pangarap ko talaga yan ( That’s been my dream),” he said.

“Na- inspire talaga ako ni Onyok Velasco. Kaya ginusto ko din subukan (That’s why I vowed to try),” said Ladon, a silver medalist in the 2015 SEA Games.

Ladon also won the silver in the Asian Championships in Bangkok in 2015 and qualified outright to Rio with another silver in the Asia Oceania Qualifiers in China. He is confident of making it here.

“Hindi na ako mag-hihintay ng next chance. Kung mananalo ako ng ginto, dito na ( I won’t wait for a second chance. If I am to win the gold, I’d win it here),” he said. Ladon is not wasting his chances.