Carlo Paalam fights way to silver in Asian Games boxing

In a split decision, the Philippines' Carlo Paalam settled for silver after his loss to Japanese bet Rui Yamaguchi in the men's 55kg boxing final at the 2026 Asian Games on Friday, Oct. 2.

Two judges scored the match 29-28 and 30-27 for Paalam, but the three other judges favored Yamaguchi 29-28. 

Marcus Manalo, secretary general of the Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines, is crying foul, however. 

"I thought we won the bout. 'Yung first round, puwedeng 50-50. There's not much activity there," he said in an interview with media, posted on the Philippine Olympic Committee's Facebook page. Paalam scored 1-4 in the first round. 

In the second round, Manalo said Paalam landed more clear punches in target areas, but he still got a score of 2-3.

According to Manalo, Yamaguchi resorted to clinching, or clinging to Paalam, in the third round. 

"Ang pag-asa sana natin, 'yung last round, ma-de-duction-an 'yung Japanese kasi puro kapit na lang 'yung ginawa nu'ng last round. Ayaw na makipag-boxing," Manalo said. 

He added that another obstacle Paalam had to overcome was the Uzbek referee at the match. According to Manalo, the referee had been biased against Paalam since the Filipino boxer's semi-final match against Kazakhstan's Makhmud Sabyrkhan, which had the same referee. 

He raised his objections during an Asian boxing board meeting the other day, he said, asking how the organization is selecting its referees and judges, and how it is educating them. 

Regarding Paalam's loss, Manalo said ABAP will be writing a letter to inquire about the process of referee selection, "lalo na kung mayroong obvious bias against our boxer during the semi-finals pa lang. 'Yun 'yung frustrating."

"Parang ang sore loser nu'ng dating. Pero as much as possible, we don't want to really attribute our loss to external factors. Pero malaki talaga 'yung impact eh sa naging performance," Manalo said.  

Had Paalam won the gold, it would have ended the Philippines' 16-year gold medal drought in men's boxing at the Asian Games. Rey Saludar won the last boxing gold for the country, and the 52kg flyweight title, at the 2010 Guangzhou Games.

This wasn't the only hard-fought silver medal Paalam won on the world stage in boxing. At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the slugger from Talakag, Bukidnon, also won silver in a split-decision match against Great Britain's Galal Yafai. Prior to this, Paalam brought home the bronze at the 2018 Asian Games and gold at the 2019 Southeast Asian Games. 

These wins were a long way from the town plaza in Cagayan de Oro, where Paalam used to fight in matches for prize money amounting to P120. It was there where he was discovered by his coach Elmer Pamisa, who became Paalam's mentor and was by his side during his latest Asian Games match. 

The current overall 20th Asian Games medal count for the Philippines is 25, with four in gold, six in silver, and 15 in bronze.