Aira Villegas


Aira Cordero Villegas is a Filipino amateur boxer. She won a bronze medal in the inaugural women's Light Flyweight event at the 2024 Summer Olympics.
IG iiamairavillegas

Early life

Villegas was born on August 1, 1995 in Tacloban. Her older brother, Rominick, was a boxer who had won titles in their province and was a university scholar at the government-managed Leyte Sports Academy. He taught her boxing when she was nine years old, at first for fun. However, a serious hand fracture prevented him from making the national team. When Typhoon Yolanda hit Tacloban, their family lost their home. Motivated by her brother and her desire to provide for their family, she decided to pursue boxing.

Career

In 2012, when she was 16, Villegas began her amateur career, joining the Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines National Open in Tagbilaran City. It was at this tournament that she was scouted by former Olympian and Asian Games gold medalist Violito Payla, who then brought her to Manila to train with the national team.
As a southpaw, Villegas has competed in at least two editions of the IBA Women's World Boxing Championships in the -52kg division. For the 2022 edition in Turkey, she was forced to move to the -50kg division after her previous class was scrapped.
In 2021, the Philippine Olympic Committee named Villegas as a beneficiary of the Olympics Solidarity Scholarship Grant by the International Olympic Committee.
She has also competed at the 2022 Asian Games which was held in September 2023 in Hangzhou, China. Villegas is also a Southeast Asian Games medalist, having won a bronze in the 2019 edition organized in the Philippines.
Villegas qualified for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, by winning the quota bouts round, of the women's flyweight division, at the 2024 World Olympic Qualification Tournament 1 in Busto Arsizio, Italy.
At the Olympics, she won a bronze medal after losing to Turkish boxer Buse Naz Çakıroğlu in the semi-finals.

Personal life

Villegas studies criminology at the University of Baguio.

Summer Olympics

Light flyweight Olympic qualification
2024 Summer Olympics results