Thursday, 30 July 2026 · Philippines
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PAALAM DOMINATES ALGERIAN TO ADVANCE TO QUARTERFINALS

Paalam (R) connects at Flissi.

Caro Paalam of the Philippines dished out a dominant performance against Mohamed Flissi of Algeria winning 5-0 in their round of 16 bout at the Kokugigan Arena in Tokyo, Japan Saturday to advance into the quarterfinals in the ongoing Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

All five judges, Muhammad Arisa Putra Pohan of Indonesia, Anar Babnli of Azerbaijan, Radoslav Simon of Slovakia, Makfouni Abdellatif of Morocco and Alejandro Barrientos Martinez of Cuba gave all the rounds to Paalam who got a perfect score of 30-27 from each of the five judges.

In the first round, Paalam's overhand right repeatedly found a home at Flissi's head. In the second round Paalam scored with his one-two combinations as the Algerian could not catch a moving target in the Filipino. It is more of the same in the third round with Paalam connecting with beautiful left uppercut to the chin of Flissi to cap his impressive showing.

Paalam (R) connects with a right at Flissi.

Paalam will face 2016 Rio Olympics gold medalist Shakhobidin Zoirov of Uzbekistan in the quarterfinals.

The 23-year-old Paalam will now face 2016 Rio Olympics gold medalist Shakhobidin Zoirov of Uzbekistan in the quarterfinals on Tuesday, Aug. 3. Zoirov defeated Daniel David Varela de Pina in the round of 16, 5-0. A win by Paalam over Zoirov will assure him of a bronze medal finish.

Nesthy Petecio will see action against Irma Testa in an hour for their Women's featherweight semifinal bout. The winner will fight for the gold medal while the loser will end up with a bronze medal.

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