Zolani Tete goes in guns blazing for title defence
Casimero can box, he can fight ... we’ve studied him — Tete
● Zolani Tete dispelled the notion that he has a weight problem en route to his next fight.
While members of his entourage tucked into meaty options at the OR Tambo Airport Wimpy on Friday afternoon, the WBO bantamweight champion ordered a waffle and ice cream.
And he didn’t hold back on the syrup either.
“I don’t know why they think I’ve got a weight problem,” the Mdantsane fighter said before knocking back his passion fruit and lemonade.
Tete, 31, returns to the ring against Filipino John Riel Casimero in Birmingham on Saturday night for the first time in more than a year.
The damaged right shoulder that scuppered his April clash against Nonito Donaire was fully healed, he said.
Now he’s got to prove that he’s still a worthy world champion.
Casimero has fought three times this year already and, in Tete’s injury-enforced absence, the WBO made the Filipino their interim world champion.
He’s Tete’s crown prince.
“He’s a good boxer,” admitted Tete. “He can box, he can fight … we’ve studied him carefully, but we’ve got what it takes to take him out.
“I’m not going to chase the knockout. I’ll settle for the win.”
Apart from his record-breaking 11-second knockout of countryman Siboniso Gonya in Belfast in 2017, Tete hasn’t won a fight inside the distance since 2016.
He went 12 rounds against veteran Omar Andres Narvaez and fledgling professional Mikhail Aloyan, despite dominating them.
Some observers believed Tete failed to stop them because weight loss had drained him of his strength.
But the proof of the pudding eventually lay on Tete’s empty plate. “I watch what I eat and I reduce my weight slowly over time. I don’t eat waffles every day.”
Tete is making the fourth defence of the belt he won in 2017.
Under contract to British promoter Frank Warren, every one of those fights has been outside SA. In fact, he hasn’t fought on home soil since December 2015.
The chances of that changing were slim, said his manager, Mlandeli Tengimfene. “He’d have to take a 50% pay cut to fight at home.”
Fighting at his favourite venue, the Orient Theatre on the East London waterfront, would be even costlier, added trainer Loyiso Mtya. “He’d have to have six fights there to make what he gets in one fight overseas.”
The money’s good, but the sacrifice is high — Tete hates leaving his wife Syolise and their five children at home for each trip, even though it’s for just more than a week at a time. But business is business and Tete seems determined to do it right.
Too many boxers have failed financially over the years; he wants to buck that trend.
His Last Born Promotions is already doing well, he said, and he and Syolise were looking to get into new ventures next year, like buying property to rent.
“I can afford to retire now if I want,” said Tete, who flew to England in business class. The rest of his entourage were in economy.
Tete is still dreaming of big things, like unifying the world bantamweight title and would jump at a shot at Japan’s Naoya Inoue, the WBA and IBF champion.
“I can take him and shock the world. “I will be the underdog, but not in my mind,” Tete said, adding he believed the fight could materialise. “I think it’s realistic and it will definitely happen.”
When the Wimpy bill arrived, it was accompanied by a pile of sweets.
Tete was given first choice and he picked just one (Mtya pocketed the lion’s share).
Who says Tete has a weight problem?
I can take him and shock the world. I will be the underdog, but not in my mind
Zolani Tete
WBO bantamweight champion