Ball is in ‘Professor’s court and what he does with it will be big test
Is Makazole Tete being thrown into the deep end by being matched against the newly crowned SA bantamweight champion Ronald Malindi?
“Yes, he must either sink or swim,” replied his manager Mla Tengimfene.
The fight on December 2 at Orient Theatre will form part of the Last Born Promotion show with Tete and Malindi battling it out for the ABU title.
Tete’s career is at crossroads after he was soundly beaten by Namibian Jonas Matheus in Mthatha in July. Tete’s performance was woeful as he hardly launched a sustained offence.
Instead, he allowed the Namibian to tee off at will while he was content to sit on the ropes. The loss capped a dismal run for the talented, yet indifferent boxer, whose disdain for boxing is documented.
After the loss his management revealed that he would enlist the services of a sports psychologist and would even boost his technical team.
Tengimfene revealed that indeed, Tete has spent six weeks in intensive training which covered various aspects of his game.
“We did everything to prepare him for this fight, now the ball is in his court,” he said.
“This it for him. We can only do so much and as they say, you can take the horse to the river but you cannot make it drink if it does not want to.”
Those words all but signal the last effort to save Tete’s career which promised so much when he started out, leading to him earning the “Professor” moniker.
But his form has regressed so alarmingly that some detractors are even suggesting that he should quit boxing before he gets seriously hurt.
In fact, that nearly happened two years ago when he was brutally knocked out by unheralded Filipino Jonas Sultan sparking calls for him to quit the fight game.
But Tengimfene has persevered with him by g iving him chance after chance, hoping he would regain his form.
Now there are concerns whether Malindi who is unbeaten in 14 fights, is the kind of opponent against whom Tete will relaunch his career. The newly crowned South Africa champion is no pushover at all, although talent wise he is not in Tete’s league.
Still, facing such a tough foe could destroy everything Tete’s team is trying to build.
But Tengimfene is hearing none of it, arguing that if Tete has mended his ways he should have no problem beating an opponent like Malindi.
But Mla has stuck with him by giving him chance after chance