The former scavenger guns for a silver medal today in boxing against Japanese rival
By Lynde Salgados
Correspondent
THE controversial defeat of Filipina Nesthy Petecio in her fight for gold against home favorite Sena Irie will not affect flyweight boxer Carlo Paalam as he enters the ring today against another Japanese bet in the men’s semifinals of the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympic Games.
After the 23-year-old pride of Cagayan de Oro eliminated the top-seeded world champion Shakhobidin Zoirov of Uzbekistan to at least assure himself of a bronze, Paalam’s camp has no doubt of his ability to hurdle the challenge of Ryomei Tanaka, 27, winner over Colombian Yuberjen Herney Martinez Rivas also in a controversial manner.
“Tanaka got away with an intriguing win over the Colombian but he could not escape from our very own Carlo. And we have no doubt about it. Salig lang,” Paalam’s training coach Elmer Pamisa said in a cyber interview yesterday.
Paalam and the hard-pounding Eumir Marcial of Zamboanga were the only ones left to carry the Philippines’ goal of winning its first-ever gold in boxing in 97 years of history of the highly prestigious Summer Games.
Paalam clashes with the dangerous Tanaka at 1 pm, followed by Marcial’s duke-out with Ukrainian world champion Alexandr Khyzhniak at 2 pm at the Kokugikan Arena in Tokyo, Japan.
Marcial punched his ticket to the semis round after a sensational first-round knockout of fellow pro fighter Arman Darchinyan of Armenia.
“We’ll not be training this hard and stay away for (a) longer time from our family for nothing. Carlo Paalam will bring home the bacon,” that was Pamisa exuding the same confidence when his prize ward from Talakag, Bukidnon gunned for the podium’s top honor during the 30th Southeast Asian Games in Manila, last year.
The whole nation expressed concerns over the winning chances of the visitors when paired against homegrown talents especially after Petecio’s much talked about unanimous decision loss to the 20-year-old Japanese Sena Irie who appeared to have landed more hugs than punches in a three-rounder that turned into a wrestling match.
But coach Pamisa believes that Paalam’s hard-nosed preparation is enough to ward off the odds surrounding the long-debated mysterious circumstances in boxing that denied Filipino Onyok Velasco of gold during the Atlanta Olympics.
In fact, since early February the Philippine boxing delegates have already gone to Calamba, Laguna for their pre-Olympics training before flying to Thailand in January to heighten the Filipinos’ preparation.
It was in Thailand that Paalam accidentally injured his Thai sparring partner Thitisan Panmod, a strong prospect for the Olympics medal in the flyweight division, who awkwardly fell on his left knee after absorbing a strong body shot from the former garbage picker in Cagayan de Oro.
The training accident apparently led the hapless Thai to miss the Tokyo Olympics.
Cagayan de Oro sports coordinator Jaymar Rivera said it was also in the same fateful event that they became optimistic for Paalam to beat the defending Olympics titlist Zoirov en route to a possible gold “because Zoirov once suffered a loss at the hands of the Thai contender that got injured by Paalam.”
You may call him the Buboy Fernandez (Pacman team) in Paalam’s camp for sheer body size and sharp foresight in boxing. But Rivera, the trusted man of Mayor Oscar Moreno in streamlining the Cagayan de Oro sports program that helped a lot in jump-starting Paalam’s boxing career, saw a hole in the Japanese bet’s armor.
“Naay paksi sa iyang kilay (inflicted by the Colombian) and that’s enough for Carlo to take advantage of it in their semis duel,” Rivera said.
“We have no problem at all against the Japanese Tanaka. We’re confident Carlo can handle him well tomorrow (Aug. 5),” Pamisa guaranteed.
Meanwhile, the impressive Marcial ― whose fiancee is a Kagay-anon from the Galarpe boxing family ― will have his hands full opposite the Ukrainian Khyzhniak who defeated him two years ago in a tournament in Bulgaria.
In that encounter, Marcial was forced to withdraw before the start of the third round due to a hand injury.
It’s Marcial’s time to redeem himself against his former tormentor who made it to the semis after defeating Euri Cedeno Martinez of the Dominican Republics.
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