By Ron Jackson
South Africa’s Zolani Tete makes the third defense of his WBO bantamweight belt against Mikhail Aloyan of Russia, and they also meet in the quarterfinal of World Boxing Super Series, on Saturday at the Ekaterinburg Expo in Ekaterinburg, Russia.
In a battle of southpaws the 30-year-old Aloyan who has only had four winning fights as a professional, all on points, is a comparative novice as a professional against the far more experienced Tete (27-3, 21 KOs) who is also 30-years-old.
Tete a former WBF flyweight and IBF junior-bantamweight world champion made his pro debut on May 27, 2006.
His only losses have come against Moruti Mthalane (tko 5), Alberto Rosas (pts 12) and Roberto Sosa (pts 12). Since the loss to Rosas, Tete has remained undefeated in eleven fights with seven coming inside the distance.
Tete really captured the attention of the boxing world when in 2017 he knocked out Siboniso Gonya (11-1) in 11 seconds of the first round and then outclassed the highly regarded Omar Andreas Narvaez (48-2-2) over 12 rounds earlier this year.
Aloyan was an outstanding amateur, winning a gold medal at the 2010 European championships and a bronze at the 2012 London Olympics.
At the 2016 Rio Olympics he won a silver medal in the 52 kg division, but was then stripped of the medal for testing positive for tuaminoheptane.
As a flyweight he took gold at the 2008 World Cup and at the World Championships he won bronze 2009, gold 2011 and gold 2013.
As a professional all his fights have been in Russia with wins against Yader Cardoza (pts 10), Marvin Solana (pts 12), Hermogenes Elizabeth Castillo (spilt decision 10) and Alexander Ezpinoza (split decision 10). None of these fighters can be called world beaters.
However, rather surprisingly Aloyan is listed at No. 6 in the September WBO rankings.
The betting odds are 1/4 win for the favourite Tete.
The winner of this fight will meet the winner of the match between Ryan Burnett and Nonito Donaire.
On the same card in the second cruiserweight World Boxing Super Series, Russian Ruslan Fayfer 23-0; 16 faces America’s Andrew Tabiti 16-0; 13.