By Monwabisi Jimlongo
The reality of getting a four-year ban has finally hit home on former world champion Zolani ‘Last Born’ Tete and his management after a B sample also tested positive for a banned substance stanazolol.
Tete and his handlers opted to go for the B sample after his A sample tested positive for the performance-enhancing drug following his fourth round stoppage win over Briton Jason Cunningham at the OVO Arena in Wembley, London, in July last year.
Tete returned home with the Commonwealth, IBF International and World Boxing Organisation (WBO) International junior-featherweight titles following the win over Cunningham.
“Unfortunately, the results of the B sample confirmed the same thing as those of the A sample. We have done everything to check the source of this. We started here at our team and found nothing untoward. As of now, there’s nothing we can do. The next thing is for Zolani to go out there and face the consequences,” Tete’s manager Mlandeli Tengimfene said.
Soon after the A sample results were made public in November last year, Boxing South Africa (BSA) suspended the former IBF junior-bantamweight and WBO bantamweight champion’s licence. A four-year ban could spell the end of the once illustrious boxing career of Mdantsane-born Tete, who turns 35 in March.
