Cagayan de Oro’s pride Carlo Paalam advances to the gold medal fight

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY’S ‘boxing at the park’ product Carlo Paalam is now one step away from clinching the gold medal after his successful demolition of a much faster and aggressive fighter from Japan Ryomei Tanaka via unanimous decision.



Paalam’s corner saw the very impressive performance of their bet and said that the young fighter has a very good chance of winning the gold. “He is tough and smart and immediately countering the attacks and jabs of his opponent with solid punches,” one of Paalam’s coaching team said in vernacular.



At 23, the Filipino boxer showed his agility and strong focus inside the ring as he effectively throws solid punches against equally tough opponents in this continuing battle for supremacy in the flyweight division, held at the Kokugikan Arena in Tokyo.



Paalam dominated all the rounds with a very convincing win en route to the final against a tougher opponent from Great Britain – Galal Yafai on August 7.



The Filipino boxing fans were stunned when the scavenger from Cagayan de Oro turned Olympian demolished the 2019 gold medalist from Uzbekistan, Shakhobidin Zoirov.



Paalam won all three rounds against the gold medalist based on the scoring of the three judges, which propelled the young boxer to advance to the next level and secured his bronze after a convincing win against Uzbekistan slugger.



If the Filipino boxer would continue his stamina and strong maneuvers inside the ring, he has a bigger chance of duplicating the first gold of the Philippines and also makes history as the first Filipino gold medalist in the flyweight division in the Olympics since 1924.



Star weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz has earlier made history when she defeated the world record holder from China and won the first-ever gold of the Philippines after 97 years.