 Roel won the silver medal at the 1997 World Amateur Boxing Championships.Roel Velasco was the first Filipino to win a medal in the Goodwill Games by snatching the bronze in the light-flyweight division in boxing in the 1998 New York edition.1997 was a banner year for Velasco as he added the gold medals in the 1st Muhamad Ali Invitational Boxing Championships in Kentucky, the Italian Boxing Championships and the Roberto Balado Cup in Cuba to his World Championship hardware.