First and third didn’t work

The battle plan was for Carlo Paalam to execute the “first and third” attack against England’s Galal Yafai in the Olympic men’s flyweight final in Tokyo last Saturday but somehow, it didn’t work.

The Philippines boxing coach Don Abnett said “first and third” means beating the opponent to the punch, taking a step back then countering to thwart a retaliation. Paalam employed it in outpointing Ireland’s Brendan Irvine, 4-1, Algeria’s Mohamed Flissi, 5-0, Uzbekistan’s Shakhobidin Zoirov, 4-0, (split technical decision in the second round) and Japan’s Ryomei Tanaka, 5-0, on the way to the final but Yafai proved too tough to handle.

“Yafai took the ground off and set the tone early,” said Abnett. “He didn’t give Carlo open space and pushed him to the ropes. We expected Yafai to pressure. Maybe, Carlo was overwhelmed by being in the final. Carlo has excellent boxing skills and uses good tactics. He can fight inside or outside. In between rounds, he didn’t seem into it. (Assistant coach) Ronald (Chavez) told me he was responsive but I’m not sure if he was dazed. He got tagged in the first round and went down. Still, Carlo got up and battled back.”

When Yafai opened a two-round lead, Abnett said it was almost an impossible task to recover. “Carlo needed a KO to win in the last round,” he said. “Yafai lost the round but won the fight.”  Judge Miguel Anco Bobadilla of Peru scored it for Paalam, 29-28, but the four other judges Anar Babanli of Azerbaijan, Makfouni Abdellatif of Morocco, Mansur Muhiddinov of Tajikistan and Carl Ruhen of Australia had it 29-28 for Yafai.

ABAP secretary-general Ed Picson said the knockdown made the difference. “It could’ve been a 10-8 round but Carlo came back so it was 10-9,” he said. “Yafai crowded Carlo, outmuscled him and did a good job of cutting the ring off. Carlo was fine until the knockdown. I thought Carlo won the second round and the third was clearly his. There was a glimmer of hope he would make it but the image of that knockdown probably left an impression on the judges.”

Paalam said he tried to bounce back after the knockdown and gave it his all. He’ll surely learn from this experience. Since Paalam is only 23, he’s good for at least two more Olympics. “Mga two-time Olympians ang nakalaban ko,” said Paalam referring to Zoirov and Yafai. “Lahat sila magagaling. Itong silver inaalay ko sa mga coaches, specially kay coach Pam (Elmer Pamisa) na nagalaga sa akin noong bata pa ako. Siya ang naglapit sa akin kay (Cagayan de Oro) Mayor Oscar Moreno hanggang kinuha ako ng ABAP.”