Wednesdays Wild Prediction: Celestino Caballero Will Be The King at 126

This weekend Celestino Caballero makes his official featherweight debut, and he will be king of the featherweights. He will be fighting Daud Yordan for the interim WBA title.

Yordan has gained all of his fame from a few rounds against Robert Guerrero where he looked pretty good. Guerrero of course got cut and the fight was stopped.

Yordan seems to have good pop but there are no top opponents on his record (outside of Guerrero). He stand 5’7” which is four inches shorter than Caballero.

I believe that Caballero will handle Yordan in rather easy fashion.

Caballero is rated No. 10 on The Ring pound of pound list, and has been on the list for 63 weeks. Caballero has good pop and fought some of the best super bantamweights in the world today.

Caballero has beaten Giovanni Andrade, Daniel Ponce De Leon, Somask Sithchatchawal, Ricardo Castillo, and Steve Molitor. He has also held two titles at the super bantamweight level.

His two loses are to solid figures in Ricardo Cordoba and Jose Rojas. Not losses to be ashamed of by any means. Cordoba was a titleist and Rojas has challenged Chris John for the title twice. He drew with him and then lost a unanimous decision to him in the return fight.

If Caballero becomes the king of the featherweights he will need to beat Yuriorkis Gamboa, Juan Manuel Lopez, and Chris John.

If we are going to be honest with ourselves a fight with John isn’t going to be happening. John rarely defends outside of Indonesia and is getting old. I believe that Caballero would go and fight in Indonesia but I just don’t see John making this fight happen.

So lets move to Juan Manuel Lopez. According to sources if Caballero wins against Yordan he will fight Lopez. This would be a great fight.

Caballero is a huge featherweight at 5’11” and would have a four inch advantage over the 5’7” Lopez. Lopez has never fought anyone nearly this tall and how he would approach it I have no idea.

Caballero throws punches from everywhere and has a good jab (when used). He throws some unorthodox combinations and it catches some fighters off guard. He does at times throw wild shots and leaves himself open.

He also uses his height really well. He doesn’t bend in and give his height away. With that being said if you can get inside he doesn’t like that. He doesn’t fight well inside and this would be the best way to beat him.

He also has a leaky defense and can be hit on the chin. He has a good chin though so that could be why his defense is less that perfect.

Lopez of course has power but he has average speed. He is a stand up classic boxer and is technically sound. If this fight does come off I really like Caballero to win.

He just has to much height and power for Lopez I think. Lopez does have great power but Caballero has a very good chin and I think he could absorb a Lopez shot.

If Lopez goes deep into a tough fight it has been proven that he may tire. I think Caballero would win this fight by a UD or late stoppage.

A Caballero against Gamboa fight is what I want to see. They both have dynamic offense and throw punches from crazy angles.

Also they both are offense-first fighters with good power. If this fight happens, and it will if Caballero beats Lopez, it will provide fireworks. Gamboa has more speed than Lopez and Caballero and that’s what would make this interesting.

The power is about even between the two but the speed edge goes to Gamboa by a mile. With that being said the chin edge goes to Caballero.

If Gamboa leaves himself open like he does at times it could provide disastrous. At the same time if Caballero can be found it could be disastrous to him.

Gamboa also has never fought anyone this tall. That is the X factor in both of these fights I bring up. How Gamboa or Lopez would deal with his height is a major unknown factor.

If they find a way to cope with it then these fights change dramatically. If they don’t find a way Caballero would cruise easily.

Two things I must mention is that Caballero is 33 years old which is very old for a smaller guy. If he wants to achieve all of this he needs to move fast. Also he moved up so he could get Lopez.

He wants Lopez badly and I like that. The fact he is chasing a young, big hitting, former world champion says a lot to me. He has even gone as far as to make a video on Youtube calling out Lopez.

Caballero doesn’t fear anyone and that is why he will become the undisputed king of the 126 pound division. Of course none of this will matter if he doesn't beat Yordan, so lets take this one step at a time.