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IBF and WBA Super Bantam titlist Celestino Caballero walked into the Arena Roberto Duran in Panama City, Panama on Thursday as the recognized world champion at 122 pounds but left with a tarnished reputation after winning a controversial spilt decision victory over South African challenger Jeffrey Mathebula.
Caballero started the bout well, keeping the South African at bay and controlling the pace of the contest but wasn’t able to dominate the action as he had in winning the IBF belt in most recent fight against Steve Molitor in November.
Mathebula kept the pressure on, making the champion work, taking Caballero’s best shots without budging. The strategy paid off when Caballero was spent by the midway point of the bout.
The freakishly tall Caballero, 32-2 (22), normally towers over opponents, usually enjoying a half foot height advantage but against Mathebula, the 5’11 Panamanian held only a narrow edge in this department.
That seemed to make a difference as Caballero couldn’t just use his height to pull away from a far shorter man’s punches when too tired to use footwork and countershots.
Mathebula, 22-2-2 (12), punished the champion over the next five rounds, beating Caballero to the punch time and time again.
But Mathebula too ran out of steam and the last two frames were close as the two exhausted warriors clinched and fought sporadically.
Caballero started the twelfth and final frame well, outworking Mathebula until the South African scored some power shots that had Caballero holding on.
Caballero hit the canvas but it was a pushdown from the challenger that gave the champion some much needed seconds of rest.
Near the end of the round it was Mathebula’s turn to hold on after he was rocked in the corner.
When the bout finally came to a close, Caballero was awarded the split decision, keeping his WBA and IBF titles by winning tow of the cards 116-112 while Mathebula won the third by the same score, 116-112.
The outcome was not taken well by Caballero’s home crowd as many in attendance obviously felt that Mathebula should have been awarded the decision victory.
It’s unclear at this time if a protest will be filed by Team Mathebula or if a rematch will take place.
There was another close contest on the undercard as light welter prospect Alberto Mosquera, 9-0 (6), climbed off the floor in the second frame to manage a majority decision after 11 rounds against highly seasoned William Gonzalez, 21-5-1 (6), for the WBA Fedelatin title.
