The Zolani Tete camp has dismissed rumours that his decision to prepare for his next month’s crucial world title fight at home was due to a fallout with former PSL referee Andile Ncobo.
Tete will face Argentinean veteran Omar Narvaez at SSE Arena in Belfast, Northern Ireland on April 21.
But against the norm, Tete has decided to prepare for the crucial fight in East London instead of Johannesburg where he regularly trains for his fights.
The Mdantsane southpaw has been using the house of Ncobo for accommodation purposes while training in Johannesburg and the results have seen him winning two major world titles in two divisions.
Among his special training in Johannesburg are sessions for cardiovascular exercises as well as top-class conditioning which helps him with his movements in the ring making it impossible for opponents to land a single blow.
But this time Tete, who celebrated his 30th birthday yesterday, has opted to leave it all and prepare at home although past experiences paint a rather worrying scenario.
Tete had been hit by many mysterious illnesses every time he prepared for a bout at home forcing him to vow never to do it again.
Surprisingly this time he has set a camp in an undisclosed “secluded place”, according to his manager Mla Tengimfene.
Tengimfene denied that the decision to forego Johannesburg as a training camp for this fight was due to Tete having no place to stay up there. No that is not true because our arrangement with Ace still stands,” he said.
“We only decided to prepare at home due to a number of factors for which I am not at liberty to disclose now.”
This is contrary to Tengimfene’s previous utterances when he said Tete would move to Johannesburg three weeks before the fight.
“A lot of issues have come up, making it impossible to move to Johannesburg,” he said when reminded of what he had stated previously.
Attempts to get Ncobo’s comment drew a blank.
Ncobo came to Tete’s rescue when a picture of the boxer taken in a crammed little room with his sparring partners unleashed a media storm a few years ago.
The photo went viral with Tengimfene battling to clear his name for being unable to make proper accommodation arrangements for the boxer. Ncobo offered his house in Johannesburg free of charge to be used by Tete while preparing for his fights. Since then Tete has moved from strength to strength winning the IBF junior-bantamweight title which he defended once before vacating to move up to the bantamweight where he claimed the WBO trinket.
He will make the second defence of the WBO belt against the 42-year-old Argentinean who will come with a reputation of being a world champion in two divisions.
Narvaez won the WBO title in the flyweight before moving up to the junior-bantamweight to claim the second one which he later lost to Japanese sensation Naoya Inoue.
His bout with Tete will offer him a rare opportunity of becoming the first boxer from Argentina to win a major world title in three divisions.
Despite the high stakes, Tengimfene allayed fears that they were not going full steam to prepare for such a big fight.
“Zolani is doing everything he has been doing when preparing for a fight in Johannesburg,” he argued.
He said Tete had enrolled to the Mike McLoughlin’s Active Attitude fitness gymnasium for his cardiovascular sessions which are as good as those in Johannesburg.
Tete has also reunited with veteran trainer Loyiso Mtya who was absent in his last fight when he broke a world record for the quickest world championship bout after knocking out Siboniso Gonya in 11 seconds in Belfast in November.
His fight against Narvaez will be in the same venue as Tete tries to lure Irish boxer Ryan Burnett into a unification.
Burnett holds the WBA super title having relinquished his IBF belt recently. Meanwhile Inoue, who publicly announced that he would be looking to move up a division to challenge Tete for his belt, has decided to go a separate route.
This after he revealed that he would instead target British boxer Jamie McDonnell for his WBA regular belt in a bout scheduled to be held on May 25 in Tokyo, Japan.
Inoue is the latest boxer to turn down a fight with Tete with others such as Zhanat Zhakiyanov and Burnett already shied away from facing the hard punching local southpaw.
Mystery over Tete bout plan
Tete will face Argentinean veteran Omar Narvaez at SSE Arena in Belfast, Northern Ireland on April 21.
But against the norm, Tete has decided to prepare for the crucial fight in East London instead of Johannesburg where he regularly trains for his fights.
The Mdantsane southpaw has been using the house of Ncobo for accommodation purposes while training in Johannesburg and the results have seen him winning two major world titles in two divisions.
Among his special training in Johannesburg are sessions for cardiovascular exercises as well as top-class conditioning which helps him with his movements in the ring making it impossible for opponents to land a single blow.
But this time Tete, who celebrated his 30th birthday yesterday, has opted to leave it all and prepare at home although past experiences paint a rather worrying scenario.
Tete had been hit by many mysterious illnesses every time he prepared for a bout at home forcing him to vow never to do it again.
Surprisingly this time he has set a camp in an undisclosed “secluded place”, according to his manager Mla Tengimfene.
Tengimfene denied that the decision to forego Johannesburg as a training camp for this fight was due to Tete having no place to stay up there. No that is not true because our arrangement with Ace still stands,” he said.
“We only decided to prepare at home due to a number of factors for which I am not at liberty to disclose now.”
This is contrary to Tengimfene’s previous utterances when he said Tete would move to Johannesburg three weeks before the fight.
“A lot of issues have come up, making it impossible to move to Johannesburg,” he said when reminded of what he had stated previously.
Attempts to get Ncobo’s comment drew a blank.
Ncobo came to Tete’s rescue when a picture of the boxer taken in a crammed little room with his sparring partners unleashed a media storm a few years ago.
The photo went viral with Tengimfene battling to clear his name for being unable to make proper accommodation arrangements for the boxer. Ncobo offered his house in Johannesburg free of charge to be used by Tete while preparing for his fights. Since then Tete has moved from strength to strength winning the IBF junior-bantamweight title which he defended once before vacating to move up to the bantamweight where he claimed the WBO trinket.
He will make the second defence of the WBO belt against the 42-year-old Argentinean who will come with a reputation of being a world champion in two divisions.
Narvaez won the WBO title in the flyweight before moving up to the junior-bantamweight to claim the second one which he later lost to Japanese sensation Naoya Inoue.
His bout with Tete will offer him a rare opportunity of becoming the first boxer from Argentina to win a major world title in three divisions.
Despite the high stakes, Tengimfene allayed fears that they were not going full steam to prepare for such a big fight.
“Zolani is doing everything he has been doing when preparing for a fight in Johannesburg,” he argued.
He said Tete had enrolled to the Mike McLoughlin’s Active Attitude fitness gymnasium for his cardiovascular sessions which are as good as those in Johannesburg.
Tete has also reunited with veteran trainer Loyiso Mtya who was absent in his last fight when he broke a world record for the quickest world championship bout after knocking out Siboniso Gonya in 11 seconds in Belfast in November.
His fight against Narvaez will be in the same venue as Tete tries to lure Irish boxer Ryan Burnett into a unification.
Burnett holds the WBA super title having relinquished his IBF belt recently. Meanwhile Inoue, who publicly announced that he would be looking to move up a division to challenge Tete for his belt, has decided to go a separate route.
This after he revealed that he would instead target British boxer Jamie McDonnell for his WBA regular belt in a bout scheduled to be held on May 25 in Tokyo, Japan.
Inoue is the latest boxer to turn down a fight with Tete with others such as Zhanat Zhakiyanov and Burnett already shied away from facing the hard punching local southpaw.
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