He is one of our four daddies for Olympic triumph and one of two in boxing. But with Eumir Marcial out of contention, Carlo Paalam had the burden to wheel us to medal goodness.
Unfortunately, he met a guy who constantly raised his hand like was playing boxing bingo.
Today was a combination of heartbreak and triumph because, at a time when the country was celebrating Carlos Yulo's historic gold medal victory, I thought Carlo Paalam was robbed of a chance to replicate a podium finish.
Paalam lost via split decision to Australia's Charlie Senior. The Morrocan judge scored all of the rounds to the Filipino while the Canadian had all of his points to the Australian. Germany was on our side while Ireland and Hungary had it for the Aussie.
I hate the decision because Paalam for me was busier and he also landed the punches that hit the opponent's face. With that said, it felt like Paalam babied the competition because when he was not punching, he was dancing away from a brawl. He also got hit a couple of times at the start of the exchanges, and it probably swayed the Irish judge to go with the Australian who was for the Filipino in the first two rounds of the match.
This made me think of Charlie Senior's strategy. He was constantly raising his hand in the exchanges that I thought he lost. I don't know if that is a difference-maker, but it certainly got the attention of the judges. It's like an old advertising maxim where it doesn't matter if your product is good if you don't market it properly. I don't think this is necessary in professional boxing because of the tendency to get knocked out, but in Olympic boxing, I think this is vital.
You can't help but feel for Paalam. If he just unloaded one or two flurries in either the first or third rounds, then this could have been his victory. Again, this revamped scoring system of boxing spares us from what happened in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics but at the same time, the fighters have to spam all their skills in the first round to prevent a shocking fate.
Hot take? I thought Carlo Paalam should have won not just because of what he did in this fight, but because he is the reigning silver medalist of the event. This is why he had times of backpedaling and he never needed to raise his hand to point out that he scored a point. Yes, it was a close match but it should have favored Paalam instead of the Australian.
This is giving me Manny Pacquiao versus Jeff Horn flashbacks.