PAALAM TRIPS AGAINST YAFAI, SETTLES FOR SILVER
By Dong Secuya
PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 07 Aug 2021
Yafai drops Paalam.
Wild card entry Carlo Paalam of the Philippines settled for silver when he lost to Galal Yafai in their 2020 Tokyo Olympics flyweight finals, 4-1, at the Kokugikan Arena Saturday.
Paalam, as what he displayed throughout the tournament, was boxing beautifully at the start of the first round, tagging Yafai with combinations. But midway in the round, as Yafai cornered Paalam in the ropes, the Brit connected with a right-left combo to the head that dropped Paalam. Paalam, who appeared hurt, could have been down in the scorecards 10-8, but came back punching to avoid that as all five judges, Manuel Vilarino of Argentina, Anar Babanli of Azerbaijan, Miguel Anco Bobadilla of Peru, Makfouni Abdellatif of Morocco, Mansur Muhiddinov of Tajikistan and Carl Ruhen of Australia, gave the round to Yafai, 10-9.
The second round was torrid, relentless and all-action as both fighters gave it all, Paalam connected a lot but so was Yafai. It appeared however that Yafai had the better of the round by dishing out cleaner and more quality punches. Four of the judges had it for Yafai and one, Miguel Anco of Peru, gave it to the Filipino.
The third round was anti-climactic as Paalam needed a stoppage to win the bout. Yafai wisely boxed from the outside and refused to engaged. All the judges gave the round to Paalam but was not enough to changed the foregone conclusion of the fight. Final score: 29-28, 28-29, 29-28, 29-28 and 29-28 in favor of the new gold medalist Galal Yafai of Great Britain.
Nothing to be ashamed of as far as Paalam is concerned because he has already over-achieved in the tournament. Winning silver is like winning the tournament itself.
Carlo Paalam gets his Olympic silver medal.
2020 Tokyo Olympics medalists (L-R): Carlo Paalam of the Philippins (silver), Galal Yafai of Great Britain (gold), Ryomei Tanaka of Japan (bronze) and Saken Bibossinov of Kazakhstan (bronze).
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