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Home > Match Information > Tanaka drops 0-5 decision to Paalam but gains bronze in men’s flyweight at Olympics

Tanaka drops 0-5 decision to Paalam but gains bronze in men’s flyweight at Olympics

Aug 05, 2021 18:06 pm

Japan’s Ryomei Tanaka suffered a 0-5 unanimous decision to Carlo Paalam of the Philippines in the men’s flyweight semifinals and had to settle for a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics on Aug. 5. In amateur boxing, semifinal losers are automatically awarded the bronze medal.

The 27-year-old Tanaka, an elder brother of former professional three-division world champion Kosei Tanaka, is the second Japanese man to capture the bronze medal in the flyweight division following Kiyoshi Tanabe at the 1960 Rome Olympics.

Four of the five judges scored the bout 30-27 and the remaining one had it 29-28, all in favor of the 23-year-old Paalam.

Boxing at the Ryogoku Kokugikan Sumo Arena, the left-handed Tanaka started out fast by throwing right jabs and straight lefts while letting out his customary voice ‘’Ah.’’ But Paalam landed counter rights after fending off Tanaka’s initial offense. All the judges score the round 10-9 for Paalam.

While Tanaka further increased his pace in the second round, he oftentimes lost his balance, and Paalam, taking advantage of that moment, connected with right-hand blows to the head and body and ended the round on top as the five judges also scored 10-9 for the Philippine boxer.

In the third and final round, Tanaka landed a sharp straight left early in the round. Paala, however, staggered Tanaka with a right hook to the head and occasionally landed a barrage of left-right combinations.

With Tanaka’s loss, all the Japanese boxers wound up their matches at the Tokyo Olympics with women’s featherweight Sena Irie winning gold for the first time since the women’s boxing was introduced from the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games. Tsukimi Namiki also captured the women’s flyweight bronze medal although she missed out on a place in the final.

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