In his first Olympic fight, Pedraza defeated Onur Şipal of Turkey by points, with scores of 10–3. Throughout the event, his strategy focused on maintaining a solid defense while connecting combinations to his opponent's body. Pedraza lost his second preliminary to Daouda Sow of France by points, 13:9. He entered the 2008 Boxing World Cup, advancing to the semifinals with an 8:2 win over Georgian Popescu of Romania. He won the bronze medal, losing (14:4) his next contest to Albert Selimov of Russia. In February 2008, Pedraza defended the lightweight national championship in the Torneo Nacional Isaac Barrientos, defeating Reynaldo Cintron in the preliminaries, Erick Vidal in the quarterfinals (WO), Edgardo Rivera in the semifinals and Ken Alvarez in the final (10:3). In May 2009, he entered the XII Torneo José "Cheo" Aponte and competed in the light welterweight limit, winning his first contest over Pedro Vicente by stoppage in three rounds. Pedraza won the silver medal, losing to Bernard Lebron in the finals by hit score following a 16:16 tie.