By Eric Thomas: World Boxing Association (WBA) featherweight champion Celestino Caballero (36-4, 23 KO’s) successfully defended his title on Saturday night defeating the much shorter challenger Satoshi Hosono (21-2, 15 KO’s) from Japan by a lopsided 12 round unanimous decision in Yokohama, Japan.

Caballero, 5’11”, towered over the 5’7″ Hosono, jabbing him at will and picking him off with powerful hooks and right hands to the head. Hosono never stopped coming forward but ate a lot of punches in doing so. The judges’ scores reflected how one-sided the fight was, as they scored it 119-108, 119-108 and 116-111, all for Caballero. The first scores were more in keeping with what actually happened in the fight.

Caballero mostly jabbed in the first round, keeping the shorter Hosono on the outside the entire time. In rounds two through five, Caballero began to unleash his uppercuts and hooks, as he was the pressing the attack. Caballero often doubled and tripled up with his uppercuts and looked really loose as he bounced around the ring like he was made of rubber. Hosono would charge him but then do zero when he got in close, forcing the referee to break up the clinching. For a short fighter, Hosono showed no ability to work on the inside. His usual tactic was to rush forward and throw one shot and then end with a clinch. Caballero, who can fight well on the inside for a big man, landed uppercuts and short punches when Hosono would come inside.

From rounds six on, Cabllero began to really tag Hosono with constant shots to the head with hooks and uppercuts. Hosono’s right eye started reddening by the 6th and he just looked tired and frustrated. Caballero looked like he was beating up an inexperienced sparing partner in the last five rounds of the fight. It’s hard to believe that Hosono was ranked #8 by the World Boxing Association because he looked so badly overmatched in this fight and fought like a novice.