In his next bout in 1986, he suffered a non-title loss to IBF Bantamweight Champion and future International Boxing Hall of Fame member Jeff Fenech in Australia.

Zaragoza moved up in weight in his next bout and scored 7 consecutive wins before capturing the vacant WBC Super Bantamweight title with a knockout win over future hall of fame member Carlos Zarate in 1988 in the tenth round of a fight scheduled for twelve rounds.

[1] Banke would go on to lose the title by knockout against Pedro Ruben Decima, who in turn was knocked out by Kiyoshi Hatanaka.

He defended the belt against Chun Huh (25–2–0) of South Korea and avenged his loss to Paul Banke.

In his next two fights he battled newly crowned WBC super bantamweight titleholder Tracy Harris Patterson, who had recently defeated Jacob.