ABAP chief Marcus Manalo believes Carlo Paalam did enough to win the Asian Games men’s 55kgs gold medal, but questioned the officiating after the Filipino boxer dropped a razor-thin 2-3 split decision to Japan’s Rui Yamaguchi.
Manalo said Paalam had to fight cautiously against the Japanese southpaw, knowing that simply charging forward could benefit the host fighter on the judges’ scorecards.
“That’s part of the strategy. Kasi kapag iyung Japanese, kapag sumugod ka lang nang sumugod diyan, kahit kalabit lang tumama diyan, mas i-score nila iyung Japan,” said the ABAP official.
According to Manalo, Paalam landed the clearer punches in the second round despite losing the round on three of the five scorecards.
The ABAP chief was particularly frustrated by the assignment of the same Uzbek referee who officiated Paalam’s semifinal match against Kazakhstan’s Makhmud Sabyrkhan.
“Why did we have the same referee in the semis and finals? Lalo na kung merong obvious bias against our boxer during the semifinals pa lang,” asked Manalo.
Manalo said the referee’s interventions affected Paalam’s momentum, while the Japanese fighter was able to hold and disrupt the action in the final round.
“So malaki iyung naging impact sa bout. But I think the gold should have been ours,” he said.
Still, Manalo acknowledged that Paalam’s defeat cannot simply be attributed to external factors, with the boxer ultimately falling short of his bid to end the Philippines’ 16-year Asian Games boxing gold drought.
“As much as possible, we don’t want to really attribute our loss to external factors. Pero, malaki talaga iyung impact sa naging performance,” Manalo pointed out.
Manalo also revealed that ABAP plans to inquire into the process of selecting and educating referees and judges, including how assignments are made and whether data analytics are being used in the evaluation process.
“How are we selecting our referees and judges? Are we educating them? And then, the use of data analytics, had to bring it up,” he said.
Paalam settled for silver despite sweeping all five judges’ scorecards in the third round, with two judges ultimately scoring the bout for the Filipino and three handing the victory to Yamaguchi. (Jesus Nathaniel Valdez)
