On Friday, July 29, WBC #13-ranked middleweight Amilcar “El Pety” Vidal (15-0. 12 KOs) will return to his hometown of Montevideo, Uruguay, to defend his WBC Latin Middleweight Championship for the second time against Rafaela, Santa Fe, Argentina’s Gabriel Omar “El Loco” Díaz (12-3-0, 4 KOs).
The 10-round Vidal vs. Diaz battle will headline an extraordinary international evening of professional boxing, presented, without fans in attendance, by Sampson Boxing, Tello Box, Paco Presents and Producciones Sports at Alberto Isabella’s American Box Gym in Montevideo and televised live by TyC Sports (Latin America), TV Ciudad (Uruguay) and Estrella TV (United States).
In the night’s potentially explosive 10-round co-main event, three-time world title challenger David “El Severo” Carmona (22-9-5, 9 KOs) of Mexico City and Tijuana’s Alex “El Peque” Santiago (25-3-5, 13 KOs) will meet for the Mexican Bantamweight Championship, the first time a Mexican national title has been disputed outside its lands.
For his second fight this year, the big-punching 26-year-old Vidal, who now lives in Los Angeles, is training in Uruguay. He was last seen in April of this year, making quick work of transplanted Argentinean Osmar Gustavo Dominguez Chamorro (TKO 2) in his first defense of his WBC Latino belt he won in 2019. A TV favorite in the United States, Vidal is known for his tremendous punching power in both hands.
Díaz, 25, a native of Rafaela, Santa Fe, comes to this fight after knocking out Nicolás Brito in three rounds last July. Diaz has faced several of his best domestic competition, such as Emiliano Pucheta, Jairo Rayman (whom he defeated), Wilson Sánchez, Gerardo Vergara and Alejandro Silva, among others.
In his professional career, 31-year-old Carmona has beaten quality foes such as Jesús Iribe and Belmar Preciado, and is also one of the few fighters to go the distance against the Japanese “Monster” Naoya Inoue, against whom he disputed the WBO super flyweight world title in 2016. He also fell by decision against Carlos Cuadras and fought Englishman Khalid Yafai for the WBA super flyweight title in May 2018.
Accustomed to boxing’s ups and downs, Mexican bantamweight contender Alejandro “Peque” Santiago rebounded from his nationally televised and highly controversial majority-decision loss to Gary Antonio Russell in November 2021 by taking a 10-round unanimous decision over countryman Juan Ramirez Marquez. The hard-luck Santiago has been the “victim” of several controversial draws against top fighters in high-profile fights, including one particularly dubious draw against IBF Super Flyweight Champion Jerwin Ancajas in 2018.
On the undercard, Colombian welterweight knockout artist Roiman Villa (23-1, 23 KOs) will face Venezuelan Domicio Rondón (17-5-0, 11 KOs) over 10 rounds, while unbeaten Dominican lightweight Francis Frometa (16-0, 10 KOs) will cross gloves with the tough Argentine Javier “Jhonny” Herrera (17-6-1, 8 KOs) in an eight-round fight.
Uruguayan locals, welterweight Víctor “Látigo” Rodríguez (7-0, 2 KOs) and super welterweight Joel Cano (1-0, 1 KO) will face Argentines Omar Correa (6-7-1, 2 KOs) and Juan Martin Salvia, respectively.
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Sampson Boxing has promotional partners all over North and South America, Africa, Asia, New Zealand, Australia, Europe and Central America. Sampson Boxing events have been televised on such premiere networks as HBO, Showtime, ESPN, ESPN+, DAZN, VS., FOX, Fox Sports and several international networks. For more information, visit sampsonboxing.com.
