Amilcar Vidal survives spirted effort from Immanuwel Aleem to win decision
Middleweight contender Amilcar Vidal is fortunate he’s still undefeated.
The strapping Uruguayan fighter emerged with a majority-decision victory over Immanuwel Aleem on Saturday in San Antonio but the scoring will have been questioned by many who watched the fight.
Vidal (13-0, 12 KOs) has overwhelmed most of his opponents. However, Aleem (18-3-2, 11 KOs) was able to take his power and dish out plenty of punishment himself.
Aleem started out by fighting behind his jab and moving in the early rounds, when he was stalked by Vidal. However, when Vidal finally closed the distance, Aleem was happy to trade punches inside and got the better of many exchanges in what evolved into an entertaining scrap.
Neither fighter was hurt seriously, although Vidal made Aleem wince once with one of his many body shots and he got clipped himself on a number of occasions.
In the end, it seemed the back-and-forth fight could’ve gone either way but two judges thought Vidal won handily. One scored it 95-95 while the other two, apparently believing Vidal landed the bigger shots, had him winning 97-93.
Thus, the 25-year-old from Montevideo remained on course toward a world title shot. And while Aleem came up short, everyone watching undoubtedly was impressed with his effort. He took a step forward in defeat.
Vidal and Aleem fought on the undercard of the Jermell Charlo-Brian Castano card at AT&T Center.
