Tete not fazed by delay for WBO title bid
WORLD title-bound Zolani Tete has expressed delight at the postponement of his WBO bantamweight title elimination clash against Filipino Arthur Villanueva.
The fight has been pushed back by two weeks from April 8 to 22 with the venue also changing from Manchester Arena to Leicester Arena in England.
It was initially scheduled to form the big card topped by the WBO lightweight title clash between reigning champion Terry Flanagan and Russian Petr Petrov.
Also on the card, which will continue as planned, was a clash of the Liams – Liam Williams and Liam Smith – for the WBO interim juniormiddleweight belt.
But Tete has now been moved by his English promoter Frank Warren to fill up the April 22 card featuring the WBO interim middleweight title clash between Tommy Langford and Georgian Avtandil Khurtsidze.
The extra two weeks have given an opportunity to shore up his preparations as he bids his most important fight post relinquishing his IBF juniorbantamweight crown.
“This helps us a great deal to go through those minor yet crucial aspects of our preparations,” said the boxer’s manager Mla Tengimfene.
Tete took a weekend off last weekend to visit his family back in East London from Johannesburg where he has set up his training camp.
“We decided to allow Zolani to come back home and spend a weekend with his family but he has gone back to camp now,” said Tengimfene.
The postponement comes at time when the WBO has issued a statement giving the winner of the Tete-Villanueva fight 90 days to get a shot at the reigning WBO bantamweight champion Marlon Tapales of Philippines.
The time-frame for Tapales to face the winner was initially 120 days but now it has been shortened to just three months.
Ironically Tapales will also be in action on the same day in Japan, defending his crown against Japanese nemesis Shohei Omori.
The extra two weeks gives Tete a chance to go back to sparring sessions with IBO flyweight champion Moruti Mthalane, who remains the only boxer to have convincingly beaten him when he stopped him in five rounds for the IBF flyweight crown in 2010.
Mthalane, who is training with Colin Nathan after parting ways with Nic Durandt, was once considered as Makazole Tete who is Zolani’s sibling, but the fight fell through due to promotional differences.
Tete is confident of making a double triumph with the Filipinos by beating Villanueva before toppling Tapales to win his second major world title.
He has beaten all Filipino opposition to date, but in Villanueva, who has lost once in 31 bouts and Tapales, who has two defeats in the same number of fights, he will face a step up in class.