Carlo Paalam assured of silver with masterful win over Japanese foe

Carlo Paalam is now one win away from the gold medal.

The 23-year-old boxer outclassed hometown bet Ryomei Tanaka of Japan in the semifinals of the men's flyweight division of the boxing event of Tokyo Olympics Thursday at the Kokugikan Arena.

With the win, he is assured of at least a silver medal.

Tanaka was aggressive, moving forward from the get-go, but Paalam picked him apart with his punches and combinations. The Filipino secured the nod of all five judges, 10-9, in the first round. He continued to pick his spots and land consistently in the second round as he again took a 10-9 for all the judges.

In the third round, he won on four out of the five scorecards to walk away with a unanimous decision, 5-0.

In the finals, Paalam will face Galal Yafai of Great Britain, who defeated Saken Bibossinov of Kazakhstan by split decision in the other semifinal pairing.

Paalam got past Olympic and world champion Shakhobidin Zoirov of Uzbekistan in the quarterfinal round for a semis berth and a guaranteed bronze medal.

Meanwhile, fellow Filipino boxer Eumir Marcial settled for a bronze medal after a brutal semifinals match with Oleksandr Khyzhniak of Ukraine in the men's middleweight division.

Both Marcial and Khyzhniak landed big blows on each other through the very close first two rounds, which had the judges split.

Two judges had it 20-18 for Marcial after the second round, one had it 20-18 for Khyzhniak, and the other two had it 19-19.

But the Ukrainian was able to win the third round on all of the judges' scorecards to come away with the split decision win.

Marcial won 29-28 in the eyes of two judges, but lost 30-27, 29-28, and 29-28 for the other three.

Marcial breezed his way into the semifinals with first round stoppages in both his Round of 16 and his quarterfinal assignments before the tough semis bout.

He eliminated Younes Nemouchi of Algeria after a cut forced a ref stoppage in his first fight before he scored an impressive knockout of Arman Darchinyan of Armenia in the quarter to secure his place in the semis.

—Bea Micaller/JMB, GMA News