Carlo Paalam displayed his winning form with a unanimous decision victory against Jude Gallagher of Ireland in the round-of-16 of the men’s 57-kilogram boxing event at the 2024 Paris Olympics on Wednesday, July 31 (Philippine time) at the North Paris Arena.

Paalam is now through to the quarterfinals round where a win will assure him of at least a bronze medal.

However, he can still go further and set foot in the gold medal round where he can tie or surpass his silver medal output in the Tokyo Olympics three years ago.

An aggressive Paalam opened the first round, showing off his quick footwork and solid punches to get the nod of three of the five officials, with judges Yermek Suiyenish of Kazakhstan and Pavel Pavlov of Bulgaria giving higher points to Gallagher.

The 22-year-old Gallagher took advantage of his height, but Paalam didn’t waver and got a 5-0 score in the frame.

A sharper and quicker Paalam, though, threw several solid hooks in the final salvo en route to a unanimous decision victory as he moved a win away from another Olympic medal.

He now awaits his next opponent with the quarterfinals slated on Saturday, August 3 at 3:46 p.m. (Philippine time).

Paalam’s victory redeemed the Philippine boxing team in the Summer Games following the shock exit of Eumir Marcial in the men’s 80-kilogram round-of-16, and Hergie Bacyadan’s debut loss in the women’s 75-kilogram earlier. (GMA Integrated News)