MANILA, Philippines – Carlo Paalam continued to shine in his Olympic bid on Thursday, displaying counterpunching prowess on his way to a unanimous decision victory over Ryomei Tanaka of Japan to assure himself of at least a silver medal in the men’s featherweight boxing.
Paalam was methodical in dismantling Tanaka — who banked on ineffective aggression spiked by equally useless shouts — to march on to the gold medal match.
Pinoy pride ????
Carlo Paalam???????? will face Galal Yafai???????? in the #boxing - men's fly (48-52kg) final bout on Saturday morning at 14:00 JST at Kokugikan Arena.#UnitedByEmotion | #StrongerTogether | #Olympics pic.twitter.com/TAoveIx213— #Tokyo2020 (@Tokyo2020) August 5, 2021
For three rounds, the surgical Paalam peppered Tanaka with counters and constantly made the home bet miss in a remarkable showcase of boxing skills en route to the shutout victory.
The 23-year-old prospect will take on Galal Yafai of the UK in the gold medal bout on Saturday. He will try to enhance the Philippine boxing team's performance in the Olympiad, with the squad already securing a silver and a bronze courtesy of Nesthy Petecio and Eumir Marcial.
The Filipino earlier upset reigning Olympic champion Shakhobidin Zoirov of Uzbekistan in the quarterfinal.