There is a new young gun in the Featherweight division, 19-year-old Randy Caballero. If you go to see Caballero fight, don’t stop to get a drink first. If you do, the chances are you will miss him. He has had four professional fights, and in those four fights he has fought the same number of rounds. His last fight lasted a whole two minutes, way longer than his other three, which went 0.56, 0.43, and 0.49.

But don’t even think that Randy has just appeared out of nowhere. He told me he’s had roughly 170 amateur fights with 10 or 11 losses. Sounds like a lot of fights for someone as young as he, but he started fighting when he was eight, which means he already has 11 years under his belt.

“I’ve been in the gym my whole life,” he said. “My dad (Marcos Caballero, who is also his trainer), used to box, as well as my older brother. When I was younger I loved to go watch my older brother fight. I would always train, and once I turned eight I went to my first show. After that it was just show after show, every week.”

I played Devil’s Advocate with him for a moment and asked him how he would answer those skeptics who might wonder what happens to him when the fight goes four rounds or six rounds – will that be a problem for him?

“No, not at all. When I train, I train 100% for more than the rounds they give me. For four rounds I’m sparring eight rounds, easy. But I won’t get in the ring when I’m not 100%. When I know I’m not 100% we won’t take the fight. The main thing is to be ready for everything that comes through.

“If the fight lasts those four rounds or those six rounds I’ll last all those rounds, but if I end the fight earlier than that it’s better for me, because my career is going to last a lot longer and I’m going to be a lot healthier.”

Being that all of his wins have come by way of knockout, I wondered if he tried for that KO. “No, I’ve never stepped in the ring thinking and telling myself that I’m going for that knockout. They’ve always said that knockouts come natural, you never ask for them, and that’s what I’ve always said in my head. I feel like it’s just another sparring to me. If I go in there all nervous, I’m not going to perform well. I take it like another sparring, relax, just get in there and do what I have to do. It comes out great for me if it comes out with the knockout, but if it goes the distance, I’m ready for anything.”

Randy did attend college, the College of the Desert, but he wanted to try out for some National boxing competitions, and they were during school. “I would have missed about a month of school,” he told me. “I talked to all my teachers and they all told me ‘You know what, we can’t give you that time, it’s too long.’ I said, ‘Not even if I get my work?’

“So I decided to take that time off and go with boxing, and then I turned pro. And now I have the time to go back, and I want to go back, because you know, if boxing doesn’t take me anywhere or something happens to me I have something to fall back on.”

As most do, Caballero took general education in college, but he does have specific interests. “I was thinking of something like nutrition. It would help us, all our boxers, in the long run in the gym. If not that, business administration.”

Moving away from boxing, I wanted to know some of the other things that this young man was interested in. Figuring most people like music, I wondered what type of music Randy likes to listen to.

“I listen to everything. I like Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, and all the rappers out there. But when I train I love to listen to Bachata, Aventura, I can listen to them all day! I love training to them. It pumps me up, listening to them. I know it’s like real soft music, but it does pump me up.”

Another thing that Randy likes to do is travel, and he has done quite a lot of that already. “I traveled a lot as an amateur. We went to Hawaii, New York, I’ve been to Nicaragua, my dad’s from there, so we went there to fight and represent Nicaragua. I’ve been to Istanbul, Turkey for a world tournament representing the U.S.A. – I came out with the Bronze at that one.

“I love traveling,” he continued. “That’s one thing I always tell himself, that if I make it big, not only do I want to stay in this valley (Coachella Valley) I want to explore the world, because it’s a big world out there. I want to explore, even if it’s not for boxing. Take a trip when I get my break right after a fight, just take off and enjoy life. I was thinking of a Caribbean cruise, I’ve heard that’s really great. I want to go to Spain – all the countries out there. I think it would be really nice.”

Ladies, Randy does have a girl friend right now, and I was curious as to how she felt about his chosen profession. I wondered if she got nervous when he fought. “Oh no, not at all. And I’ve always told myself that I would let nobody get between myself and my boxing career. She knows that, and she respects everything that I have to do. Jesse (Garcia) is working really hard to get me out to Nicaragua to work with certain people and I know it’s going to be a lot of traveling. She understands everything I’m doing. I’m glad she supports me 100%, but at the same time I have to stay focused on boxing.”

As for his parting words, Caballero had this to say. “I’m just another fighter who wants to put his name out there. Do I want to be the next Oscar De La Hoya? I’m not like that. I’ve never set my mind to where I want to be like Oscar, or want to be like Floyd. I can look up to them, but what I want to do is be better than everybody else. I want to become a Hall of Famer in the sport; do something that most people can’t do in boxing.

“It’s really hard, and you have to have so much dedication to do it. Me, I feel that I have the dedication and I’m going to do whatever it takes to get there. I know people are going to see me out there on top one of these days.”

Keep an eye on this young Featherweight fighter. He is confident and talented, a good combination. But remember, don’t be late!

All the best luck to Randy in the future and thanks to him for his time.


Please feel free to email me with your comments or questions.

Be safe and God Bless,

Viva La Raza,

Barb.