Celestino Caballero

Celestino Caballero
Statistics
Nickname(s)	Pelenchín Towering Inferno
Rated at	Featherweight Super bantamweight
Height	5 ft 11 in (180 cm)
Reach	73 ^1⁄2 in (187 cm)
Nationality	Panamanian
Born	June 21, 1976 Colón, Panama
Stance	Orthodox
Boxing record
Total fights	42
Wins	37
Wins by KO	24
Losses	5

Celestino Caballero (born June 21, 1976) is a Panamanian former professional boxer who held the unified IBF and WBA super bantamweight titles, as well as the WBA featherweight title. Outside of boxing, Caballero is also a reggae singer.

Amateur career

Caballero had 16 fights as an amateur boxer, in which he started boxing the age of 16.

Professional career

Caballero then began boxing professionally in 1998.

During a majority of the earliest stages his career, Caballero won himself these minor boxing championships: the Panamanian, WBA Fedecentro, WBA Fedelatin, WBO Latino, and NABA Super Bantamweight titles.^[1]

He had won the first four of his titles and had a record of 17-0 before losing by a third round knockout to José Rojas on May 16, 2003.^[1]

Seven months later, Caballero won the vacant NABA title by defeating Giovanni Andrade. The fight, which was held in Coconut Creek, Florida, was Caballero's first one outside of Panama. In his next fight, back in Panama, Caballero was knocked down in the tenth round and lost the title by unanimous decision to Ricardo Cordoba on May 25, 2004.^[1]

On February 17, 2005, Caballero fought the then unbeaten and would-be world champion Daniel Ponce de León in Hollywood, California. Caballero, who was a heavy underdog, won the bout by unanimous decision.

On October 15, 2005, Caballero defeated Yober Ortega by unanimous decision for the WBA Super Bantamweight interim championship. He defended the title on February 4, 2006 against Roberto Bonilla. After knocking down Bonilla in the third and fifth rounds, Caballero won via TKO in the seventh.

World titles

Caballero fought against WBA world Super Bantamweight champion Somsak Sithchatchawal in Sithchatchawal's native country of Thailand on October 4, 2006 in order to win the real WBA title. He won by TKO by knocking Sithchatchawal down three times in the third round—causing the referee to stop the bout. Caballero has defended the title five times with the last one being that he knocked out Elvis Meija in one round.

On November 21, 2008, Caballero knocked out the unbeaten IBF Super Bantamweight champion Steve Molitor in the 4th round at the Casino Rama, Ontario. With the victory, he added the IBF title with his WBA crown.^[2] Caballero won his first defense on both titles with a split decision win over Jeffery Mathebula on April 30, 2009. He defended the titles for second time on August 29 in the same year against Francisco Leal who conceded in the 8th round.

Caballero was stripped of his IBF title on February 5, 2010 for failing to have a defense against Takalani Ndlovu, his mandatory challenger in that sanctioning body, in a timely manner. On April 10, 2010, Caballero defeated Daud Yordan. After that fight Celestino expressed his high interest in fighting Cuban Gold Medalist Yuriorkis Gamboa but that fight failed to come off being unsuccessful in securing a fight at Featherweight. Celestino was able to schedule a fight with Junior Lightweight Jason Litzau at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on the opening bout of the HBO Televised undercard of Juan Manuel Marquez vs. Michael Katsidis on November 27. Subsequently, lost that fight via unanimous decision.

Celestino Caballero has dropped from Junior Lightweight to Featherwight division for a career-high against Jonathan Victor Barros, champion in property of the WBA version of this division, which fight is dated for June 18, 2011 and to take place at Mendoza, Argentina.

The WBC final Featherwight eliminator ordered by the World Boxing Council between Caballero and the Romanian Viorel Simion (16-0, 7KOs), with the winner landing a shot at current champion Daniel Ponce de León, will take place on a date in spring 2013.^[3][4]

Professional boxing record

See also

• List of current world boxing champions
• List of WBA world champions
• Ring Magazine pound for pound

References

1. Boxrec. "Celestino Caballero". Boxrec Fighter Page. Retrieved January 26, 2008.
2. Panama's Caballero snatches boxing's IBF title from Molitor Retrieved November 24, 2008. Archived December 1, 2008, at the Wayback Machine.
3. Caballero-Simion WBC Featherweight Eliminator Looms Retrieved January 10, 2013. Archived December 24, 2012, at the Wayback Machine.
4. Per Ake Persson, Caballero-Simion WBC Eliminator Heads To March January 3, 2013. Retrieved January 10, 2013.
5. http://boxrec.com/list_bouts.php?human_id=015122&cat=boxer

External links

• Official Celestino Caballero website
• Professional boxing record for Celestino Caballero from BoxRec