NOW with experience on his side and another milestone to add to his resume, Filipino boxer Carlo Paalam hopes to make the Olympics anew and turn his silver performance in Tokyo into gold come the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Fighting two pounds heavier in the 54-kilogram, the 24-year-old Cagayan de Oro pride showed that he's now a mature fighter ripe for the picking when he notched the country's lone gold in the
The 2022 ASBC Asian Elite Men & Women Boxing Championships concluded recently in Amman, Jordan.
“Nakabilib ko kay tag-as iyang mga kontra pagsaka niya’g timbang. But he proved that he’s among the classiest acts in the amateur boxing league,” Paalam’s long-time coach Elmer Pamisa told Gold Star Daily.
The former garbage picker Paalam, who fought in 52-kilogram when he reached the finals in the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics, outclassed the top-seeded Makhmud Sabyrkhan of Kazakhstan, 4-1 in their gold-medal fight for the bantamweight division.
This, as compatriots Nesthy Petecio (women’s featherweight) and Hergie Bacyadan (women’s middleweight), finished with a bronze each in their respective divisions.
"Nabalaka ako kay nibug-at iyang timbang. But Carlo is such a classy fighter dako iyang chance nga maka-gold kon palaron nga mo-qualify pag-usab sa Paris Olympics,” coach Pamisa said.
Still, Pamisa said the plan is for Paalam to get back into his fighting weight (52 kilograms) in time for the next Olympics.
In his successful campaign in Jordan, Paalam defeated Muhanov Dovlet of Turkmenistan in the round of 16, Yoon Joo-sung of South Korea in the quarterfinals, and Seidekmatov Sanzhai of Kyrgyzstan in the semifinals.
