Josie Gabuco (born March 30, 1987) is a Filipina boxer best known for winning her country's first ever gold medal in the

AIBA Women's World Boxing Championships The IBA World Boxing Championships, and the IBA Women's World Boxing Championships (previously known as AIBA), are biennial amateur boxing competitions organised by the International Boxing Association (IBA), which is the sport governing body. Al ...

. She is also the most successful boxer in the history of the Southeast Asian Games with a record five gold medals.

Early life and education

A native of

Puerto Princesa Puerto Princesa, officially the City of Puerto Princesa (Cuyonon: ''Siyudad i'ang Puerto Princesa''; fil, Lungsod ng Puerto Princesa), is a 1st class highly urbanized city in the Mimaropa region of the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, ...

, Palawan, Gabuco was born on March 30, 1987. She took up the sport of boxing in 2003 with the intention of using it as a means to enter a college under a scholarship program. She was able to attend the STI College in Manila where she pursued a course on

Criminology Criminology (from Latin , "accusation", and Ancient Greek , ''-logia'', from λόγος ''logos'' meaning: "word, reason") is the study of crime and deviant behaviour. Criminology is an interdisciplinary field in both the behavioural and so ...

Career

Gabuco earned a slot in the Philippine national team after winning gold at the 2004 National Open. Gabuco first made international headlines in 2008 when she won a bronze medal in the pinweight division at the

held in Ningbo. In 2009, she captured a bronze medal in the Asian Indoor Games in Hanoi and claimed her first SEA Games gold medal in Vientiane later that year. She successfully defended her pinweight title in the

2011 Southeast Asian Games The 2011 Southeast Asian Games, ( id, Pesta Olahraga Asia Tenggara 2011) officially known as the 26th Southeast Asian Games, or the 26th SEA Games, and commonly known as Jakarta-Palembang 2011, was a Southeast Asian multi-sport event held from ...

Palembang Palembang () is the capital city of the Indonesian province of South Sumatra. The city proper covers on both banks of the Musi River on the eastern lowland of southern Sumatra. It had a population of 1,668,848 at the 2020 Census. Palembang ...

. She won the first gold medal for the Philippines in the

in 2012 after ruling the light flyweight category. ;2012 World Championships Results * Defeated Yairineth Altuve (Venezuela) PTS (24–13) * Defeated Derya Aktop (Turkey) PTS (27–10) * Defeated Kim Klavel (Canada) PTS (21–15) * Defeated Svetlana Gnevanova (Russia) PTS (12–7) * Defeated Xu Shiqi (China) PTS (10–9) For her feat, Gabuco was named one of the four recipients of the 2012 Athlete of the Year Award by the Philippine Sportswriters Association along with fellow boxer, Nonito Donaire Jr. and the Ateneo Blue Eagles and women's national softball team. In 2013, Gabuco became the first Filipina boxer to win three gold medals in the SEA Games after ruling the light flyweight class in Napyidaw. Gabuco competed as a flyweight in the

2014 Asian Games The 2014 Asian Games ( ko, 2014년 아시아 경기대회/2014년 아시안 게임, Icheon sip-sa nyeon Asia gyeonggi daehoe/Icheon sip-sa nyeon Asian Geim), officially known as the 17th Asian Games ( ko, 제17회 아시아 경기대회/제17회 ...

Incheon Incheon (; ; or Inch'ŏn; literally "kind river"), formerly Jemulpo or Chemulp'o (제물포) until the period after 1910, officially the Incheon Metropolitan City (인천광역시, 仁川廣域市), is a city located in northwestern South Kore ...

but lost to Vietnam’s Le Thi Bang in the quarterfinals. She trimmed down to light flyweight at the

2015 Southeast Asian Games The 2015 Southeast Asian Games ( ms, Sukan Asia Tenggara 2015; ; ta, 2015 தென்கிழக்கு ஆசிய விளையாட்டுப் போட்டிகள்), officially known as the 28th Southeast Asian Games, or ...

in Singapore where she captured a record fourth gold medal. Thus, Gabuco became just the second Filipino boxer to win four gold medals in the SEA Games after Arlo Chavez in the 1990s. She was denied a chance for a fifth consecutive SEAG gold medal after women’s boxing was scrapped from the

2017 Southeast Asian Games Seventeen or 17 may refer to: *17 (number), the natural number following 16 and preceding 18 * one of the years 17 BC, AD 17, 1917, 2017 Literature Magazines * ''Seventeen'' (American magazine), an American magazine * ''Seventeen'' (Japanes ...

calendar. At the

2019 Asian Amateur Boxing Championships The 30th edition of the Asian Amateur Boxing Championships was held from April 19 to 26, 2019 in Bangkok, Thailand. It was the first time in the tournament's history that men and women fought in the same championship. Medal summary Men Women ...

in Bangkok, Thailand, Gabuco clinched a gold medal in the light flyweight division after winning over Kim Hyang-mi of North Korea in the final bout. Gabuco won a record fifth gold medal at the

2019 Southeast Asian Games The 2019 Southeast Asian Games, officially known as the 30th Southeast Asian Games, or the 30th SEA Games, and commonly known as Philippines 2019, was the 30th edition of the Southeast Asian Games, a biennial regional multi-sport event which ...

after defeating Indonesian Endang in the light flyweight final despite nursing a flu. She became just the second boxer in SEAG history to win five gold medals after Thailand’s Somjit Jongjohor.

Personal life

Gabuco is a

single mother A single parent is a person who has a child or children but does not have a spouse or live-in partner to assist in the upbringing or support of the child. Reasons for becoming a single parent include divorce, break-up, abandonment, becoming wid ...

and has a son. She is also enlisted in the Philippine Navy.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gabuco, Josie 1987 births Living people Filipino women boxers Boxers at the 2014 Asian Games AIBA Women's World Boxing Championships medalists People from Puerto Princesa SEA Games medalists in boxing SEA Games gold medalists for the Philippines Competitors at the 2009 SEA Games Competitors at the 2011 SEA Games Competitors at the 2013 SEA Games Competitors at the 2015 SEA Games Asian Games competitors for the Philippines Competitors at the 2019 SEA Games Light-flyweight boxers SEA Games bronze medalists for the Philippines Competitors at the 2021 SEA Games 21st-century Filipino women