CARLO Paalam booked a berth in the quarterfinals of the 2020 Asia and Oceania Boxing Olympic Qualification tournament following a dominant win over Ramish Rahmani of Afghanistan on Saturday.
The Filipino flyweight scored a 5-0 win over Rahmani in their Round of 16 match at the Prince Hamzah Sport Hall.
Paalam thus advanced to the next round and moved closer to earning a ticket to the Tokyo Olympics.
The Olympic path however is not going to be easy.
Next for Paalam is top seed Amit Panghal of India, who incidentally, struggled to post a close 3-2 victory over Kharkhuugiin Enkhmandakh of Mongolia in their Round of 16 outing.
Paalam also became the fifth Filipino to make the quarterfinals of the week-long meet after world champion Nesthy Petecio, Eumir Marcial, Riza Pasuit and Ian Clark Bautista.
Not as fortunate though was James Palicte, who lost to Uzbekistan's Elnur Abduraimov, 5-0, in the Round of 16 in the lightweight division.
Still to see action for the Philippine boxing team is lady flyweight Irish Magno.