One of SA boxing’s biggest comebacks will unfold when former two-division world champion Zolani Tete returns to the ring in August after the completion of his four-year dope ban.
Tete, who will be 38, has been consigned to the ring wilderness after he was slapped with the lengthy ban following his fourth-round knockout win over Englishman Jason Cunningham in a junior featherweight clash at Wembley Arena in London in July 2022.
The fight featured several regional titles of the world sanctioning bodies to help Tete crash the ratings in a quest for another world title shot after reigning as world champion in the junior bantamweight and bantamweight divisions.
However, a month later, traces of a banned substance, stanozolol, were found in his urine sample, which he denied knowledge of, and he embarked on a campaign to prove his innocence.
This included enlisting the services of a French laboratory, which sided with him that the amount of the substance in his system indicated that it was not intentionally ingested.
However, the United Kingdom Anti-Doping (UKAD), which handled the hearing after the SA Institute for Drug-Free Sport had already consulted Boxing SA to institute a provisional ban, was not convinced by the mitigating factors.
The body implored Tete to reveal the source of the substance in exchange for a lenient sentence, and when he pleaded ignorance, it slapped him with the maximum ban dating from the Cunningham bout, the outcome of which has since been changed to a no contest.
Tete’s manager, Mla Tengimfene, said UKAD had confirmed that the ban would end on July 31, freeing the Mdantsane left-hander to resume his career.
“We have already arranged his ring return for August, and Tete has never stopped training during the ban,” he said.
Tete, who still pleads innocent, insisted he would never be forced to quit boxing but would leave on his own terms.
“My boxing career was never nurtured by UKAD, and it will not be destroyed by them,” he said.
“I know this will be a long shot, but I will continue with my boxing until my body tells me otherwise.”
Though his weight has never bothered him, Tete will resume his career in the featherweight division, where he is hoping to win another world title.
Tengimfene could not say if English promoter Frank Warren would still be part of Tete’s return until he had gauged his boxing performance in the ring.
“One step at a time until we assess Zolani’s performance; then we can begin to rekindle old relations.”
There has been concern about whether the layoff will negatively affect Tete, as boxers coming from a lengthy ban are often a shell of their former selves.
But Tengimfene insisted that Tete could not be likened to boxers who were banned for cheating.
“Some of those who were banned intentionally ingested banned substances to gain an unfair advantage, which affected their bodies when the bans were completed.
“Zolani never ingested a banned substance, but he was a victim of the system, which I do not want to go back to.”
Tete still sports an impressive record of just four losses in 34 bouts with 22 stoppages, including holding a world record when he needed only 11 seconds to knock out Siboniso Gonya in defence of his WBO bantamweight title in Belfast in 2017.
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