Paalam’s golden bid ends in silver

NISHIO CITY — Carlo Paalam did exactly what a fighter is supposed to do in a gold-medal fight on the road.

He left nothing in the tank. Still, it wasn’t enough.

Paalam – Cagayan de Oro’s pride, Olympic medalist, as tough as they come – threw everything he had in a stirring third-round rally but it wasn’t enough to overturn early deficits, bowing to Japanese favorite Rui Yamaguchi via a razor-thin 2-3 split decision in the men’s 55kg final of the Asian Games at the Nishio Gymnasium here.

And thus Philippine boxing will have to wait four more years for another shot at ending a long gold drought in the sport where the country enjoyed glorious moments decades ago.

Paalam settled for silver. At least, it’s better than the bronze won by Eumir Marcial in Hangzhou in 2023.

Fighting out of the red corner before a highly partisan home crowd, Paalam weathered a strong early push from Yamaguchi who took the opening round on four of the five judges’ scorecards, with only one judge seeing it 10-9 for the Filipino.

Paalam tried to turn things around in the second with clear, crisp hits to the target areas but still dropped the round 2-3 on the cards.

Knowing he needed a big finish, Paalam went all out in the third and completely dominated, sweeping all five judges 10-9. The late surge fell agonizingly short on the final tally, though.

It was a heartbreaking end to what could have been a golden finish for Philippine boxing in these Aichi-Nagoya Games.

National coach Marcus Manalo could not hide his frustration, questioning the appointment of the same referee who handled Paalam’s semifinal bout.

“I thought the first round, it was 50-50... So Carlos really had to be extra careful, and he really had to just land clear punches, which I think is what we did in the second round,” said Manalo. “Sa second round, I think sa atin ‘yun. Pero talo tayo ng 3-2.”

He smelled something fishy with the same official who made it hard for Paalam in the semifinals against a Kazakh rival.

“Frustrating na ‘yung same referee na nag-referee sa kanya sa semifinals, obviously biased against him. At ‘yun na naman ang in-appoint sa atin in the finals,” rued Manalo.

For Paalam, it’s another silver to add to his collection, and another podium finish for Team Philippines. But for Philippine boxing, the wait for that elusive Asian Games gold goes on.