Paulo's Story
Fast Facts
Sport: Boxing
Event: Light Heavyweight
Olympic History: Tokyo 2020
Highlights: Silver medal at Asia-Oceania Olympic qualifier March 2020
Year Born: 1997
Born: Sydney
About Paulo
From Mount Druitt in Sydney's west, Paulo Aokosu showed promise in many sporting endeavours from an early age and came from a family of sportsmen and women.
Paulo was a competent shot put and discus thrower in his teenage years before exiting athletics in 2013 as a 16-year-old. His sister Filoi also took the silver medal in discus at the 2014 Australian Under-20s Championships to earn a spot at the World Junior Championships that same year in Oregon.
Paulo draws a lot of support from his sporting family. Not too many mothers can throw themselves physically into the training regime for their elite athlete children, but Aokuso’s mum Nessie takes no backward steps.
She’s often donned the gloves and sweated it out with her son, as he worked hard to make his Olympic dream a reality.
Paulo took up boxing in 2015 at age 18. He was introduced to the sport by his father and joined the Queensland Academy of Boxing.
There began the ride of a lifetime leading him to the Asia-Oceania Olympic qualifying event in Amman, Jordan in March 2020.
His results there marked his arrival as one of Australia’s brilliant young boxers.
Paulo unanimously defeated Vietnam’s Manh Nguyen to lock in a tournament semi-final berth and a Tokyo 2020 spot, after knocking off 2019 World Championship silver medallist Dilshod Ruzmetov (Uzbekistan) in the previous round.
“I’ve been throwing that right hook all night and he’s been falling for it so I kept throwing it and there you go. It feels amazing to topple the second seed in my first international fight. It’s going to be a bright future for me,” Paulo said.
Paulo made his Olympic debut at the delayed Tokyo 2020 Games, competing in the men's boxing light heavyweight division in 2021.
After receiving a bye in the round of 32, Paulo faced Spanish boxer Gazimagomed Jalidov in his round of 16 bout. In a tense fight, a 3-2 points decision in Jalidov's favour meant Paulo's Olympic campaign came to a close.
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