By: Sean Crose
Showtime presented a three fight card live from the at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas on Saturday night. First up, the 12-0 super middleweight Amilcar Vidal faced the 18-2-2 Immanuwel Aleem in a scheduled 10 rounder. Vidal had last fought back in November when he knocked out Edward Ortiz in 2. Aleem had last seen action in 2019 when he dropped a decision to Ronald Ellis.
The fight followed an interesting pattern. Aleem did well early on, while Vidal worked well heading into the middle rounds. Aleem, a pressure fighter, was able to grind away, but Vidal wasn’t afraid to apply pressure himself. It was a high octane affair. At the end of the sixth, Vidal hurt his man with brutal body work.
To his credit, Aleem not only survived, but returned to being competitive. By the later rounds each man was digging deep and throwing hard. Both men fired away in the tenth and final round, exciting the live crowd and the Showtime broadcast team. Vidal squeaked by with a majority decision win.
Next up, the 13-0 Rolando Romero faced the 24-1-1 Anthony Yigit in a scheduled 12 rounder. Romero’s previous bout resulted in a stoppage victory over Aver Sparrow in January. Yigit had last been in the ring back in 2019 when he bested Siar Ozgul by decision. Yigit also had shown up quite heavy for the weigh in for the battle with Romero.
Although Yigit was in the game, the first few rounds seemed to be edged by Romero. The fifth round, however, was wild, with Romero being docked a point for roughhousing, then dropping his man at the bell. Yigit got up, then survived the 6th, but was sent to the mat again in the seventh. He got up, then went down again. Finally, a thunderous Romero shot put Yigit down and out.