Trying to become the second pugilist in Team Pilipinas’ stable to reach the finals, Carlo Paalam was dealt a heart-breaker.
The 20-year-old light flyweight was handed a razor-thin split decision loss, 2-3, against India’s Amit, Friday evening at the JIExpo – Hall C in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Paalam settled for a bronze in the continental meet to raise the country’s tally to four golds, one silver, and 14 bronzes.
“Thank you sa God at walang nangyari sa akin sa ring,” he said. “Binigay ko talaga ang lahat ko dahil sa tiwala ng mga coaches ko at tiwala ng bayan na magkaka-gold medal ako.”
However, this one will hurt for the native of Bukidnon.
Two judges scored the bout in favor of Paalam 29-28. Algerian judge Athmane Lazizi had it 29-28 for Amit, while Indonesian Hermanto Ginting Bagusmunthe scored it 30-27 for the Indian.
Uzbek Bekjon Yusupov scored it 29-28 to give Amit the bout. Surprisingly, finalist Hasanboy Dusmatov is from Uzbekistan.
“Binigay ko na lahat, pero binigay ng mga judges sa India,” said Paalam.
After two action-packed rounds, Paalam knew that he needed to go for broke to prove to the judges that he deserved the win. Paalam landed a clean combination on Amit that rocked him. But Amit was able to recover and end the bout in a wild brawl.
Eumir Marcial will look to book the Philippines’ second gold medal match ticket later on in the middleweight division.
