Failed dope test may KO Tete
Eastern Cape world champion faces four-year ban from boxing after UK finding
Eastern Cape boxing world champion Zolani Tete could be knocked out of boxing for four years amid doping allegations.
The two-time world champ is in a race against time to save his career after the devastating news that he failed a drug test for a July bout in the UK.
Tete knocked out Englishman Jason Cunningham in four rounds to win a slew of regional titles, including the Commonwealth junior featherweight title, at Wembley Arena.
The victory vaulted him to third spot in the World Boxing Organisation (WBO) ratings, qualifying him to contest for a title eliminator.
However, all that is at risk after the UK Anti-doping Agency informed him that a banned substance was found in his system shortly after the fight.
Not only could a ban be up to four years but the fight outcome can be changed to a no-contest bout, if it is proved that he took the banned substance.
The UK Anti-doping Agency relayed its findings to the SA Institute for Drug-free Sport, which informed Boxing SA.
BSA acting CEO Nsikayezwe Sithole confirmed on Sunday that his office had received the news of Tete’s failed dope test.
“We are engaging with Tete’s team and they have advised us they will challenge the finding,” he said.
The matter has been reported to sports minister Nathi Mthethwa, who could not be reached for comment on Sunday.
Tete’s manager, Mla Tengimfene, was reluctant to comment at the weekend, though he confirmed receiving the adverse findings.
He said Tete had arranged for his B-sample to be tested on Tuesday and that he had no knowledge of how the substance came to be in his body.
“We are confident that this is one big mistake,” he said.
“Zolani has no knowledge of this and in all the years I have been with him he has never failed a dope test.
“It baffles me that he would do it now at the tail end of his career,” Tengimfene said.
Tete is among the international boxers who enrolled for the Voluntary Anti-doping Association, which requires participating athletes to subject themselves to random tests throughout the year.
Insiders were silent on the identity of the substance found in Tete’s system.
However, it is believed to be a muscle-cutting agent which is on the World Anti-doping Agency’s banned list.
The 34-year-old held world titles in the junior-bantamweight and bantamweight divisions when he ruled as an IBF and WBO champion while fighting under English promoter Frank Warren.
After surrendering his WBO crown to Filipino Johnriel Casimero in the UK in 2019, Tete’s career appeared to have nosedived when his contract with Warren expired.
However, he revived it in a big way with his crushing knockout of Cunningham.
But the failed dope test could deal his career a debilitating blow in the form of the fouryear ban if the B-sample also comes back positive.
It is rare for tests conducted on two samples to render different findings.
The Dispatch reported earlier in November that Tete had vacated the Commonwealth title at the behest of his English promoters shortly after winning it against Cunningham.
Insiders claimed that the move might have been influenced by the adverse drug test and that other belts, such as the WBO Intercontinental and IBF International titles that he also won in the fight were also set to be vacated.
Tengimfene declined to shed more light on the claims, insisting that his focus at the moment was on proving his charge’s innocence.
Though the four-year ban is a maximum sentence, Tete could get off with half of that, if he were to present mitigating factors on how the substance ended up in his body.
SA boxer Kevin Lerena had previously argued that he mistakenly used his wife’s tablets when an illegal substance was found in his system. He got away with it because the IBO, whose cruiserweight title he held then, did not strip him.
Another high-profile boxer who fell foul of a dope test is English star Conor Benn, whose catchweight bout against his nemesis, Chris Eubank Jr, was cancelled at the 11th hour in October.