ABAP laments officiating in Paalam's finals match

Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines (ABAP) Secretary General Marcus Manalo questioned the scoring and the repeat officiating on Carlo Paalam's 2-3 split decision loss to Rui Yamaguchi of Japan in the Asian Games men’s 55kg boxing finals.

Manalo dispute the questionable repeat assignment of referee Maruf Urdushev from Uzbekistan, who also officiated Paalam's semifinals match.

“Frustrating na ’yung same referee—the same referee na nag-referee sa kanya sa semifinals, obviously biased against him during the semifinals—’yun na naman ang in-appoint sa atin in the finals. Ang dami-daming referees na puwede pa diyan,” Manalo shared.

“Paglabas pa lang ng referee, ano na ako, parang, ‘Again?’... Why are we having the same referee in the semifinals, na talagang kung mayroong views, biased against our boxer during the semifinals?," he added.

Manalo said that ABAP will be sending a formal inquiry regarding the referee and judge selection process, which he raised during a recent Asian Boxing working meeting regarding referee education, data analytics, and transparent officiating assignments.

With Judges 3 (Giovanni Garcia Giron of Guatemala), 4 (Osama Hanafy of Egypt), and 5 (Sarra Bouhlel of Tunisia) handing identical 29-28 scorecards to Yamaguchi against the 29-28 and 30-27 cards from Judge 1 (Jovana Ugrenovic of Serbia) and Judge 2 (Gintaras Sniuksta of Lithuania), Paalam’s 5-0 sweep of the third round was rendered academic—especially with Yamaguchi resorting to constant clinching without being penalized.

Manalo explained that the Filipino corner executed a deliberate tactical game plan to neutralize the counter-punching Japanese fighter before turning up the accuracy in second round.

“I thought the first round, it was 50-50. There was not much activity there. Siguro para sa mga nanonood, bakit hindi mas aggressive si Carlo? He’d like to be. That’s part of the strategy kasi pag ’yung Japanese, pag sumugod ka nang sumugod diyan, kailangan bigla kang tamaan diyan, masi-score na nila ’yun,” Manalo expressed.

“So Carlo really had to be extra careful, and he really had to just land clear punches, which I think is what we did in the second round. So bilangin lang ’yung clear punches na landed, target areas. Sa second round, I think sa atin ’yun. Pero talo tayo ng 3-2 in the second round. First round, talo rin tayo 4-1. And so basically, ’yun na ’yun.," he said.

Still, Manalo thinks that the victory should belong with Carlo, especially as he tries to end a 16-year gold medal drought for Philippine boxing in the Asiad stage.