Night of Body Shots As Randy Caballero & Olympians Show

INDIO, CALIF.-A night of body shots saw Randy “El Matador” Caballero and two former U.S. Olympians use blows to the torso to remain undefeated on Saturday.

Lefts to the body were the theme of the night.

Caballero used the body-shot KO body shot to retain the NABO bantamweight title against Puerto Rico’s Miguel Robles (12-3-2, 5 Kos).

Caballero (19-0, 11 Kos) was the third fighter at Fantasy Springs Casino to win by knockout via the deadly body shot. Earlier two former Olympians also won by body shots. The Coachella fighter was making his return to the ring since beating Luis Maldonado on Jan. 11 in the same arena.

The bantamweight did not have time to shake off the six-month rust. Robles was eager to exchange and had a pretty good defense to offset some of Caballero’s charges.

After numerous rounds of head-hunting, Caballero finally began attacking the body and that opened up more offense for the champion. Robles never really seemed bothered but was retreating a little more after round five.

Caballero attacked a little more vigorously in round six and seemed to hurt the Puerto Rican with precise shots to the head mixed with blows to the body. He nodded when the bell rang as if telling himself that he knew the end was coming.

The seventh round saw Caballero attack aggressively but Robles seemed ready for the onslaught and caught the Nicaraguan-American boxer with a three-punch combination. That would be all because Caballero followed Robles and caught him with a left to the body and down he went for the count.

A world title shot is on Caballero’s mind.

Other bouts

South El Monte’s Joseph Diaz Jr. (7-1, 4 Kos) landed a thudding left to the mid-section of Luis Cosme (8-3-1, 3 Kos) and ended his night early in the first round. Diaz, a former U.S. Olympian, traded feints and jabs before unloading a three-punch combination. It was the left cross that connected and let the air out of Cosme at 2:09 of round one. Diaz was not supposed to be on the card. However, when the main event featuring Frankie Gomez was canceled due to an injury, Diaz was asked to fill in and accepted readily. The southpaw featherweight would rather fight than train. Referee Jack Reiss counted out Puerto Rico’s Cosme.

Former Olympian Errol Spence Jr. (7-0, 6 Kos) didn’t waste time getting acquainted with Utah’s Eddie Cordova (4-5-1) in their welterweight match. Both exchanged to the head and body freely. Then Spence wound up and fired a left to the body and ended the night for Cordova at 2:13 of round one. Left-handed Spence was bent on winning by knockout. The junior middleweight is managed by Al Haymon, who also manages Floyd Mayweather, Josesito Lopez and Chris Arreola.

A ferocious junior lightweight fight ended in a draw between Whittier’s Humberto Zatarain (3-1-2) and Santa Ana’s Eric Ituarte (5-0-1) after four rounds. Zatarain was the shorter fighter but was able to nullify Ituarte’s longer arms by keeping the fight inside. He also had the better defense and that helped. Ituarte had some good moments but couldn’t land enough. All three judges scored it 38-38.

Angel Osuna (11-3-1, 7 Kos) had several inches in height over Utah’s Christian Nava (2-4-1) and it was a long right uppercut that ended the fight by knockout. Osuna punched from all angles but found extra success with the right uppercut. One of those long-range blows ended the middleweight fight at 2:07 of round two. Osuna fights out of Coachella.

Heavyweight Alex Rivera (1-3) picked up his first pro win by technical knockout over C.J. Leveque (0-1) who was making his pro debut. Rivera was the lighter boxer by 70 pounds against Northern California’s Leveque who walked in the ring at 294. Three consecutive right hands floored Leveque, who beat the count. Coachella’s Rivera then pounced on his foe with 10 successive blows forcing referee Jack Reiss to halt the fight with Leveque standing up at 2:07 of round one.