Boxing News Boxing News
On Friday evening, Panamanian featherweight Celestino Caballero went into the lion’s den of Buenos Aires’ famed Luna Park Stadium to take the WBA title from Argentina’s Jonathan Victor Barros in a rematch.
Two years after outgrowing the WBA and IBF super bantam titles, 35 year old Caballero was coming off two split decision losses, the second of which was a WBA title bout against Barros in July.
In that contest, which took place in Barros’ hometown of Mendoza, Argentina, the local man was dropped twice but still managed to win two of the three cards.
Barros lost a bid for the WBA crown in March of last year against Yuriorkis Gamboa but when the title became vacant in eight months later, the 27 year old won it by halting Irving Berry before going onto to record successful defenses against Mickey Roman and Caballero.
Early on in the rematch, Barros tried taking the fight to the much taller Caballero, looking to land lefts to the body and overhand rights upstairs.
But Caballero simply backed away from most of Barros’ offense or managed to nullify the champion’s effectiveness by slipping and blocking.
Caballero then began to counter with jabs and his favorite punch, a long looping right hand to the body.
While this approach was effective, it also gave Barros the opportunity to land the occasional left hook or right hand.
Caballero became more effective as the rounds wore on as Barros had difficulty dealing with such an awkward and tall antagonist. The champion couldn’t come up with a plan that worked as Caballero continued to keep Barros either on the defensive or unsure of what to do.
By the time the 12 rounds were over, Caballero gained his revenge and his third world title, winning all three scorecards 118-111, 116-111 and 116-112.
The Panama City man improves to 35-4 (23) while Barros falls to 33-2-1 (18).
Also on the bill, light heavyweight Roberto FelicianoBolonti, 27-1 (16), retained the WBC Latino bauble with a fourth round stoppage of 41 year old southpaw Jose Hilton Dos Santos, 31-15-1 (20).
The future career prospects of former WBA light heavy beltholder Hugo HernanGaray, 34-7 (18), are in doubt as he was stopping in the fifth by ex-Argentine titlist Cesar David Crenz, 20-5 (13), at cruiserweight.
