With the opportunity to become Uruguay’s first world professional boxing champion inching closer with every victory, unbeaten WBC #9 middleweight Amilcar “Pety” Vidal (16-0, 12 KOs) is hard at work in the gym with trainer Bob Santos, preparing for his 10-round clash against also unbeaten Elijah Garcia (13-0, 11 KOs) on Saturday from Toyota Arena in Ontario, California.
Vidal and Garcia will meet in the opening bout of the Showtime telecast topped by a high-powered matchup of former world champions, Brandon “The Heartbreaker” Figueroa and Filipino sensation Mark “Magnifico” Magsayo for the vacant WBC interim featherweight title.
“I’m too close to lose now,” said Vidal during a break. “I am training with the will of the people of Uruguay and my promoter, Sampson Lewkowicz, who is also from here, and I have the best trainer in the world to get me past Garcia and the rest of the way to becoming my country’s first world champion.”
Vidal says that against the power-punching southpaw Garcia he’ll be looking to make a final statement in his case for a championship fight.
“There will be no denying me after this,” said Vidal. “I will make my final case for a title shot by destroying my opponent’s will and taking his undefeated record. He’s a good fighter, but this is history in the making that cannot be stopped.”
Garcia is literally 19 years old. This is going to be a fun fight for as long as it lasts.
It seems the Canadian channel TSN has stopped picking up the Showtime fights. As of now this one is not on the schedule and it is the third Showtime card in a row they are not picking up. DAZN maybe expensive but at least it is predictable. The Matias fight last week was a bad one to miss. Saw the highlights on YouTube and it looked like a good one. Matias is someone I want to see more of.
Got Magsayo – Figueroa on that same card Pete, should be a war as well.
I was pretty impressed with Vidal the first time I saw him fight. He blasted out a fellow undefeated prospect in the 2nd round I believe. He was one of several young KO artists coming up at that time in the middle/supermiddle weights, including Berlanga. His next outing, he didn’t look so hot, but was awarded a gift decision against Immanuel Aleem. I kinda wrote him off after that. Good to see he’s coming back with championship ambitions. His belief in himself is a hell of a lot more important than what guys like me think about him.