PLANT CITY, Fla. – For the most part, the public sees the in-ring tests that a young boxer has to get through. Sometimes, it’s the tests that people don’t see that reveal the most about a boxer’s character.
Weljon Mindoro had to deal with one of those early tests on Thursday morning at the ProBox TV Events Center. Mindoro, who was ripped in the way that only a dehydrated person would appear, weighed in a fifth of a pound over the 162lbs catchweight stipulated in the fight contract with opponent Dormedes Potes – roughly the weight of a pair of boxer shorts and thus within acceptable limits.
Meanwhile, Potes, a Colombian journeyman who has fought across the scale, from junior welterweight to cruiserweight, weighed in one deep breath away from 170 pounds. Potes didn't shed an ounce in the hour he was allotted by the Florida Commission to do so.
“I was shocked when I saw that his weight was 169.4lbs. I wasn’t eating for days, and it’s actually pretty disappointing that he is taking the weight loss very easy,” Mindoro, 14-0-1 (14 KOs), told BoxingScene. Instead of pouting or causing a scene, Mindoro accepted a pound from Potes, 14-7-1 (10 KOs), as he walked by after they finished their pre-fight interviews with the ProBox commentators. Whether Potes’ cavalier attitude towards weight-cutting would fuel his rage in their eight-round bout at the RP Funding Center in nearby Lakeland, Mindoro won’t say.
“It’s not in my personality to brag, but tomorrow I will do my best to do my best performance for the people,” said Mindoro.
Instead, the 25-year-old Mindoro is grateful for the opportunity to compete before another big audience. Fighting in front of a crowd on a popular streaming platform is a long way from his humble beginnings back home in the Philippines.
Mindoro grew up in a small town called Dumingag, in the Philippines province of Zamboanga del Sur. The middle of five children, he was raised by a single mother who operated a small sari-sari store – a small corner shop, usually attached to the owner’s home, that sells basic grocery items like packets of crackers or toothpaste and shampoo by the sachet.
“We were the poorest of poor. We were always wondering, how do we escape poverty?” said Mindoro, who is now married with a two-year-old daughter. “Like Manny Pacquiao, I started boxing to escape poverty.”
Mindoro picked up boxing at age 11, drawing inspiration from watching Pacquiao’s fights – in particular his bouts with archrival Juan Manuel Marquez, who now commentates Mindoro’s fights on ProBox.
Mindoro competed in approximately 40 amateur bouts, though most came in informal “barangay” boxing matches, which were often unsanctioned fights that took place in town squares, in which the winner gets a prize of 100 pesos, or about $1.75, and the loser takes home half that sum.
He finally began seeking bigger purses in 2019, when he turned pro as a 19-year-old. He relocated to Bacoor, Cavite, located within driving distance of the Philippines’ capital region of Manila, and fought out of the Quibors Boxing Gym, where he met his current management team. Today, Mindoro’s career is also guided by American dealmakers Brendan Gibbons of Viva Promotions and ProBox TV, and the fighter is trained by Bobby McRoy at Knuckleheads Boxing Gym in Las Vegas.
Although Mindoro has been mostly untested in the pros, he has gotten good work in the gym, sparring with the likes of former world titleholder Caleb Plant and top contenders like junior middleweight Brian Mendoza and super middleweight Trevor McCumby.
Mindoro has scored a knockout in each of his victories, but Gibbons says it was the one fight that Mindoro didn’t win – a 2023 split draw in Japan with the more experienced Takeshi Inoue – that caught his attention. Although pre-fight discourse set low expectations for the lightly regarded Mindoro, Gibbons was impressed with what he saw.
“I watched the fight and I was like, ‘Dang, this guy has something to him,’ because Takeshi Inoue usually comes forward and can take some punches,” Gibbons said. “He was on the back foot and respecting Weljon Mindoro in a 12-round fight that I think Weljon got stronger in. After that moment, I was like, ‘I need to find this guy.’”
Gibbons did find him, and he partnered with Mindoro’s team in the Philippines to bring him to the United States. He says that Mindoro’s ceiling is as high as his willingness to buy into the plan set forth by his team.
“I think he controls his own destiny,” said Gibbons, whose father, Sean, runs Manny Pacquiao’s MP Promotions. “He can do whatever he wants, as long as he stays focused, doesn’t blow up between fights and follows the game plan of the team that he has around him.”
So far, Mindoro has done exactly that. Just as he has dutifully carried the nickname “The Triggerman” without fully understanding why – perhaps a reference to 1990s Filipino basketball star Allan “The Triggerman” Caidic – so, too, has his faith in those entrusted with moving his career been unwavering.
“It means, like, they tell me to shoot, I shoot,” Mindoro said of his nickname. “They tell me to punch, I punch.”
Mindoro has done plenty of punching as of late. Mindoro has scored three early knockouts since coming stateside, blending his power with the patience of a veteran, all while remembering to invest in the body. Mindoro says his favorite punch is the uppercut, which was evident in his second round knockout of Tyler Goodjohn in July of 2024. Mindoro's commitment to body punching was showcased in his last fight, a first round stoppage of the previously unbeaten Omar Ulises Gutierrez Munguia in June.
Gibbons says he views Mindoro not as a 14-0-1 boxer, but as a 4-0 boxer, given that his early opposition was mostly against blown-up lightweights (there are virtually no boxers in the Philippines who weigh above the featherweight limit). Couple that with Mindoro’s limited amateur experience, and Gibbons is content to take his time building him.
“I can throw him in with anyone, but I’d rather give him a few more fights, do some more eight-rounders, keep training under American lights and build a real monster,” said Gibbons.
“I think the world is in front of him. He can be a world champion. He has natural power, natural gifts, so I think the future is bright.”
Ryan Songalia is a reporter and editor for BoxingScene.com and has written for ESPN, the New York Daily News, Rappler, The Guardian, Vice and The Ring magazine. He holds a Master’s degree in Journalism from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism and is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at ryansongalia@gmail.com or on Twitter at @ryansongalia.
