Yamil Caraballo: Boxing Career and Notable Fights
Colombian minimumweight Yamil Caraballo faced undefeated champion Ricardo López in a WBC strawweight title bout in Monterrey on December 10, 1994.
A championship test in Monterrey
BoxRec records the bout at 104 pounds: López stopped Caraballo by technical knockout at 1:10 of the first round. The contemporary Los Angeles Times account likewise identified Caraballo as Colombian and reported that López stopped him in the opening round. The contest was his second opportunity at world-championship level, following an earlier WBO title challenge.
Caraballo’s title challenge placed him opposite one of the defining fighters of the minimumweight era. The record gives a useful glimpse into the deep contender pool López faced during his long championship run.
Caraballo began his professional career in 1988, defeating Remberto Muñoz over four rounds in Cartagena. His first year included victories over Santander Balseiro and Arnold Velasquez before a ten-round win against Rafael Julio brought him the Colombian minimumweight title. The progression moved him from short introductory bouts into championship-distance competition within a single year.
He added WBA Fedelatin honors against Orlando Maestre in February 1989. Later that year, he traveled to Santo Domingo to face Rafael Torres for the inaugural WBO minimumweight championship. Torres won the twelve-round contest, giving Caraballo his first recorded professional defeat.
Caraballo subsequently rebuilt at light flyweight. His 1994 results included stoppages of Henry Casarrubia, Victor Molino, Sixto Jaramillo and Eduardo Hernandez before the López challenge. He returned after that defeat with three victories in 1995, including a decision against Dunoy Peña. These domestic and regional results give his career context beyond the brief world-title bout in Mexico.
Selected career results
Caraballo’s regional opportunities also included an August 1990 IBF Inter-Continental minimumweight contest against Asdrubal Velasquez in Monteria. Velasquez stopped him in the second round. In September 1992, Caraballo drew over ten rounds with Julio Coronel in Barranquilla in a bout listed for the Colombian light-flyweight title, before returning to a busy championship-oriented schedule in 1994.
Sources
- BoxRec: Ricardo López vs. Yamil Caraballo
- BoxRec: Yamil Caraballo profile
- Los Angeles Times: December 1994 boxing roundup
Additional source: Sport & Note’s Caraballo bout record.
Sources: https://www.sportenote.com/vedi_dettagli.asp?id=52826
