ASSURED OF a silver medal in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the Philippines’ Carlo Paalam moves on to the finals after defeating Japan’s Ryomei Tanaka in the Men’s Flyweight semifinals earlier today at the Kokugikan Arena. Paalam won the bout via unanimous decision with all five judges scoring the match 30-27, 30-27, 29-28, 30-27, 30-27 in favor of the Filipino Olympian.
With Tanaka aggressively stalking Paalam in the opening round, the Filipino boxer adopted a hit-and-run fighting style. Paalam constantly bounced in and out of the pocket to land several combinations and quick counterpunches on his opponent. This strategy proved effective for Paalam as all five judges favored him in the first round.
It was more of the same story in the second round with Paalam maintaining his defensive yet aggressive style of play. On top of his clean one-two jabs and zippy counters, Paalam created openings by landing his lethal right hooks after dodging Tanaka’s punches. As a result of the Filipino’s tactical boxing, he was given a perfect score from all five judges in the second round.
Riding on this momentum, Paalam’s swift movement and clinical combinations continued to place Tanaka at a disadvantage in the third round. The Filipino slugger avoided several of Tanaka’s attempted blows and punished his opponent with clean jabs and deadly right hooks. Connecting his shots with impeccable accuracy, a lethal right hook from Paalam in the middle of the round nearly floored Tanaka upon losing his footing.
After going through the three rounds, Paalam was awarded the unanimous victory and is assured of a silver medal. He will advance to the Men’s Flyweight finals where he will compete against Great Britain’s Galai Yafai on August 7 in the Kokugikan Arena at 1:00 PM Manila time.
Eumir Marcial vs. Oleksandr Khyzhniak
IN A bout for the ages, the Philippines’ Eumir Marcial ends his 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics with a bronze medal after facing defeat in the semifinals of the Men’s Middleweight category at the hands of Ukrainian Oleksandr Khyzhniak via split decision. Three judges scored the bout in favour of Khyzhniak, 29-28, 30-27, 29-28. While the other two judges both had Marcial winning, 29-28.
Right from the get-go, both fighters were looking to engage in a brawl. Marcial and Khyzhniak both sat on their punches and looked to counter every time they saw an inch of daylight. It was a tough and grinded out first round which saw Marcial—the 2019 World Championship silver medalist—gaining the favor of judges one, three, and five to give him the round win, 10-9.
The second round saw a continued effort from both fighters to push the pace and land significant blows. Marcial was connecting in his one-two combinations while Khyzhniak—the 2019 European world champion—continued to rain down punches on the Filipino. In another hotly contested round, judges three, four, and five gave Marcial the edge.
With the result of the bout still hanging in the balance, both Marcial and Khyzhniak knew they had to have a significant round win to advance to the gold medal match. Visibly exhausted from the fast-paced action, both pugilists left it all on the line as they traded huge blows to the body and to the head. Ultimately, all five judges deemed that the Ukranian was the more active and more effective fighter in the last round, giving Khyzhniak the round win, 10-9. Due to a unanimous round three, it was enough to push the Ukranian to a split decision victory.With this loss, Marcial concludes his campaign by bagging the Philippines’ first bronze medal in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
