Celestino Caballero to defend WBA title against Mikey Garcia

By Boxing News - 03/17/2012 - Comments

Image: Celestino Caballero to defend WBA title against Mikey GarciaBy Allan Fox: According to fightnews.com, WBA World featherweight champion Celestino Caballero (36-4, 23 KO’s) will be making his next defense against unbeaten Miguel “Mikey” Garcia (28-0, 24 KO’s) in a mandatory defense. The World Boxing Association is reportedly giving the 35-year-old Caballero 30 days with which to negotiate the fight with the 24-year-old Garcia.

Caballero has lost two out of his last four fights but won his last two. He picked up the WBA belt with a 12 round unanimous decision win over Jonathan Victor Barros in their rematch last year in October. The Panamanian Caballero has since defended his WBA title once, beating challenger Satoshi Hosono by a 12 round unanimous decision last December.

Garcia defeated 2nd tier fighter Bernabe Concepcion by a 7th round TKO win last Saturday night on the undercard of the Orlando Salido vs. Juan Manuel Lopez 2 rematch in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Garcia dominated the fight with his jab and right hands.

It’s difficult to say whether Garcia has the talent to beat Caballero, because Garcia seemed easy to hit in his fight against Concepcion and Caballero has much better offensive skills compared to anyone that Garcia has ever fought before. He’s not going to be afraid to throw shots and he’s got a good enough chin to take Garcia’s occasional big right hands. We could see Garcia outworked in this fight unless he really starts opening up with his punches a lot more. Garcia fights throws few punches in all of his fights and mostly jabs. He’s not going to beat a fighter like Caballero fighting like that, because the knockout probably won’t happen and it’ll come down to whoever is landing the most power shots. Garcia with his workrate of 20+ punches per round won’t beat Caballero unless he really steps it up a couple of notches and starts throwing punches the way he should be.



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