Lyndon Patricio Snr needs a few moments when asked to calculate how many national titles his children have won. It isn’t because he hasn’t been paying attention; he was on the apron for all their big tournaments. With eight children – several of whom have won multiple national titles – it’s understandable that he needs a pen and paper to keep track of their accomplishments.
Shera Mae Patricio, Lyndon’s eldest at 22, is an 11-time national champion with a 3-0 (2 KOs) professional record, followed by the 20-year-old Lyndon Patricio Jnr, a 2-0 (1 KO) pro fighting in the bantamweight division. Then there is Sheelyn Patricio, 19, a nine-time national champion, and Lorenzo Patricio, a 17-year-old with 13 national titles, plus a gold at last year’s World Under-19 Championships. Next is Landon Patricio, 16, with six national titles, then Leighton Patricio, 14, with another six titles, followed by the 11-year-old Shania Patricio, who has six national titles of her own.
The youngest sibling, 9-year-old son Levon Patricio, only recently started competing.
The Patricio siblings, the most prolific Filipino-American family in amateur boxing since the Donaires, often train together at their gym, DPC Empire, located in their grandfather’s warehouse in Pearl City, Hawaii – about a half hour’s drive from their hometown of Waianae. Being surrounded by so many accomplished boxers can only push a fighter to achieve more, as the family’s patriarch has observed.
“They’re definitely competitive; no one wants to lose,” said the 44-year-old Lyndon Snr. “If you’re the only one who loses, you’ll get teased all year. It’s not just about boxing; even in school, they’re all competitive.
“We’re a competitive family, so I think we all want to be the best,” added Shera Mae, who is co-trained by her father and Gary Hermosura. “We push each other, but we all compete to be No. 1 and take home the gold. It do be bragging rights, just a little bit.”
The two senior Patricio siblings will take their next steps towards establishing themselves in the professional ranks when they fight on the same card on January 18 at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia. Shera Mae will face her most experienced foe, Josefina Vega, 9-10 (4 KOs), in a four-round junior bantamweight bout, while Lyndon Jnr will face Marcus Decamp, 0-2, in a four-round bantamweight fight.
While his children’s success at the national and international level has made them well-known in amateur boxing circles, it all began with the end of Lyndon Snr’s own boxing dreams. Born in Talavera, Nueva Ecija, in the Philippines, Lyndon Snr moved to Honolulu at the age of nine. He started boxing at age 11 as a way to defend himself from bullies, and did well for himself, winning six Hawaii state championships and competing at several national tournaments.
Lyndon Snr wrapped up his amateur career in 2000 with the birth of Shera Mae, then attended college for a year. He worked a pair of jobs – as a construction laborer with the Local 368 union during the day and as a security guard at night – to support his growing family. There were discussions about turning professional, but with the birth of Lyndon Jnr and his own reticence to relocate to the American mainland, those plans seemed untenable.
Though Lyndon Snr was no longer competing, he was still in the gym sparring. That’s where his children first were exposed to the sport, and it was only natural that they would seek to emulate what they saw. Lyndon Snr had them competing in different sports – football, swimming, gymnastics and wrestling – but still taught Shera Mae to box for self-defense purposes, using his hands as punch mitts.
What started as a hobby soon became an obsession for the family.
“The first time my son and daughter won, they were happy – like, ‘Dad, I can do it,’” remembers Lyndon Snr of the 2015 Ringside World Championships in Missouri, where Shera Mae and Lorenzo earned gold. It was the defeats taken by two of his other children, Lyndon Jnr and Sheelyn, that most impacted him, however.
“I saw my kids’ tears on their eyes, so I made adjustments,” said Lyndon Snr. “I had to give up myself as a fighter and begin coaching them.”
Since then, there have been far more wins than losses, conspicuously evident in the gym they represent, Westside Striking in Waianae, Hawaii, which led all of USA Boxing with a total of 76 tournament wins in 2024.
For Shera Mae, now without the headgear, there is a lot more to prove. The eldest Patricio daughter had achieved her first dream – to make it to Team USA – in 2018. But she surpassed that goal and came within a win of representing the United States at the Olympics last year in Paris. After losing in the quarterfinals of the first world qualifier in Italy and dropping another decision in the preliminaries of the last-chance qualifier in Thailand, Shera Mae realized it was time to seek out new challenges.
“It was a bit hard to intake because I was only one win away,” said Shera Mae, who also works as a dental assistant. “It was a good experience, and I enjoyed the journey.
“It’s a big transition from the amateurs to the pros because I have to change my style. I’m a pressure fighter, so I had to incorporate that into the pro style, which is to perfect my punches … and make sure every shot counts and to hit the opponent and not to get hit. Just to be more aware because of the punches, because with no headgear and wearing eight-ounce gloves, it’s a dangerous sport.”
Lyndon Jnr also had a big adjustment to make. Before making his pro debut last September, he moved to Las Vegas to expose himself to different styles of sparring and training than what he was accustomed to in Hawaii. The move is exactly the one his father was unable to make to advance his career because of his responsibilities as a parent, and it’s one Lyndon Jnr hopes will make him a better-seasoned professional.
“It was a scary move to make, but me and my dad came to the conclusion that it would be best for me to take my talents out here to Vegas,” Lyndon Jnr said. “Over here, the sparring, I get to work with different levels, veterans in the boxing world. There’s a lot of variety over here. Back at home it was just me sparring my brothers every day.”
Bob Kane, who manages both Shera Mae and Lyndon Jnr, says the plan is to have them both fight again right after their January 18 bouts, with Shera Mae already penciled in to fight again on March 1 and Lyndon Jnr scheduled for February 15, also in Philadelphia. Afterwards, they will join the Team Combat League squad for which Kane is the head coach – the Philadelphia Smoke – with bouts scheduled to begin at the end of March. Shera Mae excelled on the team last year, going 5-1 in the single-round competitions, including wins over Ginny Fuchs and Melissa Oddessa Parker.
Kane says he first became acquainted with the Patricios after one of his boxers lost to Shera Mae in the semifinals of the 2022 National Championships. He says Lyndon Snr later approached him about managing his two eldest, with Lorenzo soon to join them. The plan, Kane says, is for Lorenzo to relocate to his gym, Team Kaoz, in Philadelphia, in time for the Pennsylvania Golden Gloves, which begin in April. With no open class flyweight contenders in state, Lorenzo, who turns 18 on April 6, will be eligible to compete in the National Golden Gloves from May 11-18 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, after which he will turn professional in June.
Kane says there is already significant interest in the Patricios from promotional outlets such as Overtime Boxing and Most Valuable Promotions.
“Shera will be a world champion in 2-3 years,” Kane said. “She’s seen every style and has been all over the world fighting. Her dedication and her work ethic is unmatched. I’ve been around a lot of fighters; her in the gym training is different. She lives, eats, sleeps the life of a boxer.
“I think Lyndon is gonna develop great, too. They come from a crazy background. Their amateur experience is like no other, with the whole family.”
With all of the Patricios’ successes, Lyndon Snr is rarely seen in a photo without a finger to his lips, which he says is a reference to his fighting family letting their work do the talking for them. If the Patricios can replicate that success in the professional world, it won’t be long until a lot more people are talking about them.
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 [email protected] or on Twitter at @ryansongalia.
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