SPORTS SHORTS 86: CARLO PAALAM FROM LOITERER TO OLYMPIAN
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 22 Mar 2021
Carlo Paalam will join the Philippine team to the Tokyo Olympics on July 23 to August 8 when he and Nesthy Petecio received slots for the Summer Games and joined Eumir Felix Marcial and Irish Magno as they will try to end the long quest for the elusive Olympic gold.
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The Bukidnon-born Paalam used to be a loiterer in the streets of Cagayan de Oro City doing all types of jobs just to make ends meet. He helped his father fed the family after his mother left them.
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At the age of seven, he stopped studying and tried boxing. Nurtured by CDO Mayor Oscar Moreno, he won the gold medal in the 2013 Philippine Youth Games or Batang Pinoy. In 2014, he made it to the national team and competed in various international tournaments. Thus he was able to improve their house.
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Carlo Paalam, then aged 19, was the youngest and quietest member of the Philippine boxing team that competed in the famed President’s Cup in Astana, Kazakhstan. He stopped the host nation’s bid to completely sweep the tournament by winning the gold medal in the 49 kilogram light flyweight class on June 10, 2017.
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Paalam was the only foreign boxer to win a gold medal in the tournament dominated by the host Kazakhstan. He won on points against hometown favorite Askhat Zhusupov. The Kazakh was a tough fighter and solid puncher but shorter than the Filipino fighter.
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Paalam perfectly executed his fight plan using his footwork, speed and maintaining a good distance, foiling Zhusopov’s fight plan to tangle it in the inside by clinching technique.
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Carlo Paalam won a gold medal following a unanimous decision win over Indonesia’s Kornelis Langu in the boxing men’s light flyweight final of the 2019 Southeast Asian Games on December 9, 2019 in Manila.
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Paalam, who suffered a controversial defeat in the 2017 SEA Games, tried everything possible to get his redemption this time. He was ablaze against Langu, spraying punches on the Indonesian all throughout the fight.
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Two years ago, Paalam made his SEA Games debut and was the only casualty of six Filipinos to return home without a medal. Eumir Marcial and John Marvin won gold medals, Mario Fernandez settled for the silver medal and Charly Suarez and Ian Clark Bautista got bronze medals.
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Paalam departed Kuala Lumpur with bitter memories because many thought that he deserved the victory over hometown boxer Muhammad Fuad Bin Mohamed Redzuan but the judges shockingly scored a 5-0 unanimous decision to the Malaysian.
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Redzuan went on to be awarded the gold medal while Paalam could not climb the podium. Paalam never accepted defeat and keep standing firm that he was robbed and was a hometown decision casualty.
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Paalam faced Redzuan again, this time in the semifinals of the 2019 SEA Games. The agony that Paalam kept in his heart for two years was released by way of a raging attacks right from the start up to the end.
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In the first minute of the fight, Redzuan was hit by a hard blow that shook him and he took a standing eight-count. Paalam successfully avenged his hurting loss two years before with a very convincing unanimous decision victory. Redzuan's campaign ended just winning a bronze medal.
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Paalam, 21, trained hard for two years to revenge at Redzuan, winning a bronze medal at the 2018 Asian Games at Jakarta, Indonesia and gold medal at the 2018 Thailand Open International Boxing Tournament and reaching the quarterfinals at the 2019 World Championships in Ekaterinburg, Russia.
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Vergil Ortiz Jr. stops Maurice Hooker round seven to score his 17th consecutive knockout victory at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas. The time was 36 seconds into the seventh round. Ortiz (17-0, 17 KOs), age 22 years of Dallas, Texas, United States, is the WBO international welterweight title since 2021.
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As an amateur, he was a seven-time national champion and was the winner at the 2013 Junior Olympics. He was awarded the 2019 The Ring magazine Prospect of the Year.
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Maurice Hooker (27-2-3, 18 KOs) age 31 years also of Dallas, Texas, was the WBO light welterweight title from 2018 to 2019. He is ranked as the world's sixth best active light welterweight by the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board.
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The Los Angeles Lakers suffered a serious defeat Saturday, losing its main man LeBron James to injury. James left in the second quarter with high right ankle sprain. The Lakers said the injury will sideline James indefinitely as they lost 99-94 to the Atlanta Hawks at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
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The 36-year-old James later expressed his dismay in Twitter. "Nothing angers and saddens me more than not being available to and for my teammates!" James posted. "I’m hurt inside and out right now. The road back from recovery begins now. Back soon like I never left."
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David Nepomuceno was the first Filipino to compete in the Olympics. He was a runner and the lone representative of the Philippines at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris, France. He ran the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes, but in both races his speed was not fast enough to qualify for the quarterfinals.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Maloney L. Samaco.
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