Celestino Caballero

Celestino Caballero is a former professional boxer from Panama who competed between the years 1998 and 2014. He held world championships in two weight classes, including the unified WBA (Super) and IBF super bantamweight titles between 2006 and 2010, and the WBA (Regular) featherweight title from 2011 to 2012. Caballero fought a total of 43 times during his professional career, winning 37 fights, losing six, and never experiencing a draw or no-contest.

Caballero's professional boxing career began in 1998, and during the majority of his early career, he won a number of minor regional championships such as the Panamanian, WBA Fedecentro, WBA Fedelatin, WBO Latino, and NABA Super Bantamweight titles. He won the first four of his titles, and had a record of 17-0 until he lost via third-round knockout to José Rojas on May 16, 2003. Caballero won the vacant NABA title seven months later by defeating Giovanni Andrade. The fight was held in Coconut Creek, Florida, and it was Caballero's first fight outside of Panama. However, 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.

The Panamanian boxer fought the then-unbeaten and would-be world champion Daniel Ponce de León in Hollywood, California, on February 17, 2005. 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 his title on February 4, 2006, against Roberto Bonilla. After knocking Bonilla down in the third and fifth rounds, Caballero won via TKO in the seventh.

Caballero fought against the WBA world Super Bantamweight champion Somsak Sithchatchawal in Sithchatchawal's native country of Thailand on October 4, 2006. Caballero won the bout by TKO by knocking Sithchatchawal down three times in the third round, causing the referee to stop the bout. He defended the title five times with the last one being when 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. Caballero won his first defense on both titles with a split decision win over Jeffery Mathebula on April 30, 2009.

Celestino Caballero successfully defended his titles for the second time on August 29, 2009, against Francisco Leal, who conceded in the 8th round. However, 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, the Panamanian boxer expressed his high interest in fighting Cuban Gold Medalist Yuriorkis Gamboa, but it failed to come off being unsuccessful in securing a fight at Featherweight.

Caballero dropped from Junior Lightweight to the Featherweight division for a career-high against Jonathan Victor Barros, the champion in property of the WBA version of this division. The fight was dated for June 18, 2011, and took place at Mendoza, Argentina. Caballero won the WBA (Regular) Featherweight title on October 14, 2011, after he defeated Jonathan Victor Barros via unanimous decision. He lost that same title to Jonathan Victor Barros via split decision on June 18, 2011.

Caballero fought his last professional fight on October 4, 2014, against Adrian Estrella. The fight took place at the Centro de Usos Múltiples, Los Mochis, Mexico. Caballero lost the fight via a 12 round unanimous decision. It has been 8 years, 5 months, and 27 days since his last fight. Caballero retired from professional boxing with a record of 37-6, which included 24 knockout wins and one loss via knockout and three title wins.

Celestino Caballero's professional boxing career spanned more than 15 years from 1998 to 2014. Caballero had a total of six losses in his professional boxing career, two of them in title bouts, and four in non-title bouts. He suffered his first loss against José Rojas via 3rd round KO on May 16, 2003, which ended his 17-fight win streak. He has been stopped once and lost five times via decision.

Some of Caballero's best fights and notable victories include wins over Francisco Leal, Somsak Sithchatchawal, Steve Molitor, Elvis Mejia, Jonathan Victor Barros, Mauricio Pastrana, and Daud Yordan. Caballero was a one-time unified super-bantamweight world champion and won three world titles at two weight classes.

Celestino Caballero had a total of 43 fights in his professional boxing career. Half of his victories included knockout wins, with 24 in total. He had three total title wins and nine title defenses with six of them being knockout victories. He suffered only one loss via KO. Caballero is known as "Pelenchín" or "Towering Inferno" and was born on June 21, 1976, standing at 5ft 11in (180 cm) and having a reach of 73+1⁄2 in (187 cm). His stance was Orthodox, and he fought in the Super bantamweight, Featherweight, and Super featherweight weight classes.

Celestino Caballero Fight Record