With one year remaining before completing his lengthy ban, former two-division world champion Zolani Tete insists he will return to the ring and vie for another world title.
The Mdantsane boxer was considered one of the best boxing exports before he was slapped with a four-year ban.
This was after traces of banned substance stanozolol were found in his urine sample following his fourth-round stoppage victory over Englishman Jason Cunningham at the Wembley Arena in London in July 2022.
Tete’s team embarked on a lengthy campaign to prove his innocence, including enlisting the services of a French laboratory.
His then English promoter, Frank Warren, had requested that the case be handled by United Kingdom Anti-Doping (UKAD) and not the SA Institute for Drug-Free Sport (Saids), which had already consulted Boxing SA to institute a provisional ban.
He was handed the maximum ban dating from his Cunningham bout, with the outcome being changed to a no-contest after he pleaded ignorance as to how the substance had entered his body.
He has already served two years of the ban and is set to complete the third year on July 30, making him eligible to appeal.
But his manager, Mlandeli Tengimfene, said they would not appeal for the scrapping of the remaining year.
Tete’s lengthy ban took boxing insiders by surprise as other offenders received lesser suspensions and were allowed to return to the ring after submitting mitigating arguments.
Boxers such as Ryan Garcia, who tested positive for ostarine after his win over Devin Haney in April 2024 and Conor Benn, who also failed a dope test, have long since made their ring return.
Tengimfene alleged Tete had been punished for being an African boxer.
“It really does not make sense how we were treated yet other offenders got away with lesser punishment,” he said.
Benn said he had ingested the substance through eggs, while another high-profile case was that of Mexican Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, who failed a dope test and attributed it to Mexican beef he had eaten.
Other boxers whose fate is yet to be decided after failing a dope test include Mexican Jaime Munguia, who returned adverse findings of exogenous testosterone after his revenge wins over Frenchman Bruno Surace in May.
The future of Munguia’s compatriot, Francisco Rodriguez, also hangs in the balance after traces of banned substance heptaminol were found in his sample following his victory over English star and former Olympic gold medallist Galal Yafai in their WBC interim flyweight title clash in June.
The two are expected to get a more lenient sentence than Tete’s.
Tete, who will be 38 in July 2026, said he could not leave boxing under a cloud and would vie for another world title in the junior-featherweight division.
“We cannot let our hard work and legacy be tainted like this,” Tengimfene said.
“We will get back to the ring and prove that what happened was an aberration.”
Since the ban, Tete has transferred his boxing experience to young boxers by guiding his All Winners Boxing club stablemates in big fights.
He has also been roped in by Gauteng boxer Bheki Maitse to train him for his WBC Grand Prix featherweight campaign, which has taken him to the semifinals where he will face American Iman Lee on August 16.
Daily Dispatch
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