By Ron Jackson
South Africa’s WBO bantamweight champion Zolani Tete goes into his unification fight with WBA champion Nonito Donaire as the favorite when they clash in the World Boxing Super Series semi-final at the Cajundome in Lafayette, Louisiana on Saturday night.
The 31-year-old southpaw Tete (28-3, 21 KOs) from Mdantsane in the Eastern Cape was a good amateur before making his pro debut in May 2000 and remained unbeaten in his first 13 fights which included winning the World Boxing Foundation flyweight belt.
However, in his 14th fight in a challenge for the IBF flyweight belt, he was stopped at 2 minutes 27 seconds into the fifth round by Moruti Mthalane on September 1, 2010.
However, after his setback, he won the vacant IBF flyweight belt with a 12 round points win over Teiru Kimoshita in July 2014 and made a successful defense against Paul Butler with an eighth round stoppage.
He subsequently relinquished the IBF belt and went on to win the interim WBO bantamweight belt with a points win over Arthur Villanueva in April 2017.
The WBO subsequently upgraded him to full champion and he has made successful defenses against Siboniso Gonya (ko 1 -11 seconds), Omar Andres Narvaez (pts 12) and Mikhail Aloyan (pts 12).
The 36-year-old Donaire (39-5, 25 KOs) was born in the Philippines but now fights out San Leandro, California, and is an 18-year pro in an outstanding career, winning the IBF flyweight, IBO flyweight, WBO and WBA bantamweight, and WBO junior-featherweight and WBA featherweight belts.
His only losses have come against Rosendo Sanchez in his second pro fight, Guillermo Rigondeaux (pts 12), Nicholas Walters (tko 6), Jesse Magdaleno (pts 12) and Carl Frampton (pts 12).
All the stats are in favor of Tete who is 5 years younger, taller, faster and stronger than Donaire who is past his best.
And Donaire will only be having his second fight as a bantamweight since October 2011.
However, Tete’s last two fights haven’t been great, against the 43-year-old Narvaez and the 4 fight novice Aloyan, even though he won by wide margins.
The odds are that Tete will win on points and go into the World Boxing Super Series final against Naoya Inoue (17-0, 15 KOs) of Japan.
If he wins against Inoue he will become the richest fighter in the history of South African boxing.