CARLO PAALAM was way too tactical and quicker than his South Korean foe to easily barge to the medal round of the Asian Boxing Confederation (ASBC) Asian Elite Men and Women Championships Sunday night in Amman, Jordan.
Paalam, 24, scored a 5-0 unanimous victory over Joosung Yoon in the men’s quarterfinals in bantamweight—a national team decision to move him to a heavier weight class next to flyweight where he clinched silver at last year’s Tokyo Olympics.
He beat Turkmenistan’s Muhanov Dovlet also by unanimous decision in his first fight as a bantamweight where he gave way to compatriot Roger Ladon in the flyweight division. Ladon, however, was eliminated last Saturday.
“Carlo [Paalam] dominated that fight throughout. He was landing clear punches and just too fast for the Korean,” Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines secretary general Marcus Jarwin Manalo told BusinessMirror on Monday.
Paalam faces Kyrgyzstan’s Sanzhai Seidekmatov in the semifinals.
James Palicte, however, lost, 0-5, to Uzbekistan’s Ruslan Abdulaev in the men’s light welterweight class. Josef Ramos
Nesthy Petecio, also a silver medalist in Tokyo, meets Kazakhstan’s Karina Ibragimova on Wednesday in a women’s featherweight semifinal and Hergie Bacyadan takes on Uzbekistan’s Sokhiba Ruzmetova in a women’s middleweight semifinal.
Paalam, Petecio and Bacyadan are already assured of bronze medal.