SIMPIWE Vetyeka watched his friend Nicholas Walters destroy Nonito Donaire to take his WBA featherweight belt this past October when he scored a brutal six rounds stoppage victory.
While watching the fight, the Duncan Village-born boxer had mixed feelings as he would have loved revenge on Donaire for himself after the unsatisfactory manner in which the Filipino took his belt in Macau in May.
It was the trip in Macau that helped Vetyeka forge a friendship with Walters, who was also defending his WBA belt against Vic Darchinyan. While Walters put on a show destroying Darchinyan in five rounds, Vetyeka's own bout against Donaire was an anticlimax when it was stopped in four rounds due to an accidental head-butt suffered by the Filipino star. The fight went to the scorecards where Donaire was found to be ahead courtesy of a knockdown he scored in the third round.
Vetyeka was promised a rematch with even Donaire openly declaring he was not satisfied by the manner in which the fight ended.
But in the world of boxing promises mean nothing as Vetyeka would find out later as Donaire instead, opted to take on Walters.
“Vetyeka was confident Walters would not only beat Donaire but would stop him,” said his promoter Andile Sidinile.
“You see Vetyeka and Walters developed a friendship in Macau and I guess when Vetyeka could not get his rematch against Donaire he was happy that his loss was Walters’ gain.”
Now not only will Vetyeka come up against Walters but their friendship will suffer in the end.
But to fulfil that goal the 33-year-old will have to beat Mexican spoiler Arturo Santos Reyes in an eliminator for a shot at Walters at the Orient Theatre in East London next Friday. Sidinile says his charge will grab the opportunity if presented to him. “I know Walters left a big impression when he knocked out Donaire but you must recall that even though Donaire beat us we are not him,” he said.
“Walters is a puncher but I believe that we possess a better boxing technique than him. And do not forget that styles make fights.”
However the road to Walters could very well end next Friday if Vetyeka takes Reyes lightly.
While the Mexican carries less of a name than other featherweight boxers he is by no means a slouch.
“Vetyeka is not your hyperactive boxer. At times he tends to slow down a bit and that could be dangerous against a typical Mexican fighter like Reyes,” said Sidinile.
The 28-year-old Reyes has suffered only three defeats in 21 fights with two of the losses coming at the hands of one of Vetyeka’s conquerors, Hozumi Hasegawa, as well as Mexican Fernando Montiel.
Although he has a low knockout percentage having stopped only five opponents compared to Vetyeka, who has knocked out 16 of his 26 victims with three losses, Reyes has a swarming style supplemented by volume punching.
Such boxers tend to frustrate Vetyeka who prefers a more pedestrian bout based on skills.
But Vetyeka's trainer Bika Mpulampula says his camp has designed a strategy to counter the Mexican’s aggression.