Zolani "Last-born" Tete

:good Fixed it.

 

Tete has really only been decisively beaten once, by Mthalane who is extremely underrated (boasting high-quality triumphs over Hussy Hussein, Pingo Miranda, Tete, Johnriel Casimero, Ricardo Núñez, and 2x/could've been 4x Euro champ and former world title challenger Andrea Sarritzu; and don't be fooled by his two stoppage losses into thinking his chin's bad, either: both came under dicey circumstances, the first with Mthalane fading late his first time ever venturing in deep waters after he managed to easily outbox his Gwazela through nine, then stopped on a cut in a highly competitive match with a prime Nonito Donaire...)

Ignore the loss to Sosa, that's BS.

As for Rosas - that was a legitimately close one that could've gone either way (and it was in Mexico, but not in El Topo's home state or anything. FWIW, Dan Rafael felt Rosas was a clearly deserving victor even though he acknowledged it was close and fiercely contested throughout) - but if you take away the bogus point deduction against Tete, it becomes a bitterly close SD with scores of 115-113 Rosas x2 and 113-112 Tete.

Besides, after that eliminator Rosas would go on to get dropped & shut out by Sanchez Jr., whom Tete later knocked out.

Tall, lanky, cool under pressure, young & improving, not drained at the weight, with real snap in his punches (17 of his 20 W's by KO) and with a solid résumé already with just barely past the century mark logged in rounds, meaning not too much tread on his tires yet - I think we could see Tete become a longtime 'darling of the diehards', who makes the p4p lists of those in the know but never gets any recognition from the mainstream American media. :verysad

 

:yep

Face aside, the Butler hype was reaching noxious levels. Tete's left uppercut cracked the window and let in a nice refreshing breeze.

..and yes he does seem incredibly nice & easy to root for. I mean, FFS, he is spending his purse on legs for his mom!!!

 

Is he even Japanese? :huh

He was born and has always fought there, but his real name (Tae-Il Park) sounds Korean.

 

:nod Certainly more so than Joy-i, the most unduly over-hyped South African of the last few years. (before he lost to Dragoncito there were some - good, knowledgeable posters, too - who tipped him to not only reign supreme with an iron fist at straw & light fly as long as he wanted, but to '...appear in top 5 pound for pound lists before long' and to even beat the likes of Chocolatito! :-()

Garcia & Takayama were good wins and everything, but oh brother, talk about jumping the gun.

I'm gonna LMAO if Loreto sparks him again on Sunday. Still chuckling over last time.

 

His brother Makazole Tete is a promising flyweight prospect, too.

Currently 12-0-1 (9).

They're very close, and Makazole actually sparred with Zolani to help prep him for Butler.

Furthermore, coaches and other associates of the family say Makazole is the bigger puncher by far and possesses the more potent uppercut - a technique he actually taught Zolani. :think

 

The inside scoop on Makazole is that he is a frontrunner with bad stamina, basically a 4 or 6-round fighter tops...but in that early going he's wicked dangerous.

 

Zolani is a rightfully ascendant star in South Africa.

In about twenty minutes he is going to appear on their version of ESPN's "SportsCenter", on SuperSport 7's "Ringside" program.

He is also perhaps the most Tweeted about current pro boxer, and that includes Hekkie Budler, a longer-reigning major org world titlist and longtime fixture in his division's top 5 rankings.

He is certainly more popular (and has more upside) than Joyi, who slid further into the sinkhole of irrelevance last week: http://www.boxingforum24.com/showthread.php?t=532163

...yet the hype train for Tete seems to be crawling at more of a modest pace than Joyi's runaway locomotive ever did. :huh

Mthalane, Budler, Tete, Mchunu, Vetyeka all >>> Joyi. :deal Yet none seem to incite the kind of hyperbolic statements that he did on the basis of a couple of decent results.