Olympic Defeat – Jude Gallagher goes out on his shield
Jude Gallagher went out on his Olympic shield in Paris this afternoon as it was a case of wham bam no thank you Paalam for the second consecutive Olympics.
The ‘Tyrone Tornado’ put it all on the line against former Brendan Irvine foe Carlo Paalam, of the Philippines in the featherweight class and suffered unanimous points defeat on his Games debut.
Gallagher was competitive in every round but the experience of the Olympic medal winner over three close rounds.
The Flipino nipped a close first, which allowed him to implement a style that suited him and left Gallagher chasing the fight – and chase it he did.
The Irish featherweight knew going into the last he needed a knockout to win and impressively he went for it, emptying the tank against the world-class operator. However, the ‘Tin Can Crusher’ wasn’t one for being crushed, saw the final bell and the fighter who ended Brendan Irvines‘ Tokyo journey called time on Gallagher’s medal Parisian pursuit.
Gallagher took centre ring early one and looked to assert himself on proceedings. The Tyrone got off to a better start, well able to read his opponent’s lunging attacks and scoring regular. However, Pallam grew into the stanza and shaded it on three cards courtesy of two big right hands in the last minute.
The quality of both was on display early in the second with Gallagher landing a brilliant uppercut only for his opponent to respond in kind. The Irish champion attempted to force the action, looked the more physically imposing and worked the body well. His opponent was happy to stay out of trouble and look for more explosive moments in another close session – and the judges preferred that approach, scoring the round to the Olympic medal winner.
Gallagher needed a knockout going into the last and to his credit went for it. The approach saw him land big on several occasions and he won the round on four of the cards. However, unfortunately for the Commonwealth Games medal winner, he was in against an extremely experienced and tough operator, who was well able to survive the onslaught to progress to the quarter-finals.
