The camp of perennial training defaulter Makazole Tete has promised to unleash a new boxer when he faces Ronald Malindi at Orient Theatre on Sunday.
The pair will vie for the ABU bantamweight crown, with Malindi’s newly won SA title being spared.
Tete, a skilled boxer but with laziness that has threatened to derail his boxing career, is looking for redemption after disappointing performances in his last bouts.
Judging by his abandance of talent, Tete’s fight record should be showing no loss but it now has three defeats and two draws. The last was a lethargic display against Namibian Jonas Matheus, who beat him in Mthatha.
He has also lost to Filipino Jonas Sultan as well as Gideon Buthelezi, while his draws came against Mzuvukile Magwaca and Mfundo Gwayana.
Due to his lack of commitment to boxing his previous handlers cut ties with him, forcing him to return to his old home, All Winners Boxing Club, to team up with his younger brother, the more famous Zolani Tete, who holds the WBO world title.
Several naysayers have been calling for him to retire owing to his lack of boxing interest, with his passion lying in choral music. But his reconciled manager Mla Tengimfene vowed to give him one last chance.
“We put him into an eight weeks rigorous training camp, with no mention of choral music,” said Tengimfene.
This was even though the boxer was writing exams for a music diploma at Fort Hare University.
“I said only exams I will accommodate otherwise any other thing is out of the question.”
Even during his exams the boxer was not allowed to bunk training, with him being required to go straight to the gym an hour after writing the exams.
“It did not not matter if he finished writing at 1 am, at 2am he has to be in training.”
His handlers are now describing him as him being in the best physical condition of his life.
Previously losing the battle of the bulge, Tete is now walking around the fighting weight and looks nothing like the lazy boxer who sported flab in his waistline in his losing fight against Matheus in Mthatha.
So impressed are his trainers that there is even a talk of chasing a rematch against Matheus in the near future.
“Bottom line is he is beating Malindi, and after that we may invite Matheus to come back for a return fight.”..