East London-based boxing manager Mlandeli Tengimfene has described the 18th of October 2022 as one of the ‘darkest’ days in his life.
This is the day when Tengimfene and his boxer Zolani ‘Last Born’ Tete received the sad news of the former International Boxing Federation (IBF) junior-bantamweight and World Boxing Organisation (WBO) bantamweight champion being found to have used a banned substance Stanazolol, which is a muscle-cutting agent, during his fight against Jason Cunningham in July last year.
Tete stopped Cunningham in the fourth round to win the Commonwealth, IBF International and WBO International junior-featherweight titles at the OVO Arena in Wembley, London.
As a result of failing a doping test, the 35-year-old Tete was slapped with a four-year ban by the United Kingdom Anti-Doping Agency (UKAD).
“The 18th of October 2022 was one of the darkest days to me ever as a manager of Zolani and the other boxers. The letter, which was confidential, went straight to Zolani and he forwarded it to me because he didn’t understand what was being said in it. I read the letter and I knew what was written there. I went to SAIDS asking them what the letter meant. They explained and I then explained it to Zolani,” Tengimfene said during an interview on Umhlobo Wenenefm on Wednesday evening.
“Everything that Zolani does in the period of preparing for a fight is managed by me. He leaves his home and go stay at a secluded place. I know what he eats and drinks. Even when he gets sick, I take him to the doctor myself. Zolani has been tested more than 10 times. He knew he was going to be tested. He knew nothing when I asked him about the banned substance. I believed Zolani.”
In an effort to try to clear the Mdantsane-born former world champion, Tengimfene went as far as taking Tete’s supplements to a laboratory in France.
“We took his supplements to be tested in France and they came back negative. We were advised, at some point, to test Zolani’s toe nails, which were tested in France and came back negative,” Tengimfene also said.
“We went to negotiate with UKAD saying Zolani had something that was contaminated as proved from our side. The UKAD said they will reduce the ban to three years if Zolani admitted to having used a banned substance. We chose the four years than lying about the source of the substance. Up to this day, we don’t know where Zolani got the substance from. Scientists told us that it’s easy to get the substance when you come into contact with someone else’s sweat, eating pork, beef or chicken.”
Tengimfene added: “Zolani told me that water and Energade were already placed in the anteroom on the day of the fight. He drank the water and the Energade. We also went with it to the ring. Cunningham was never tested after the fight. We were told that he went straight to hospital. It might happen that he was positive.”
Tete said: “It didn’t sit well with me. I thought it was a prank. Knowing myself and how I prepare for fights, there was no way I would use that. I thought about everything and even went to ask the cook who cooked for me while preparing for the fight.
“It was very bad. I work with people who are experienced, they know how we do things. It was like the people were going to change what they said. It really hurt me to learn about that, my team was hurt including my family.”
Tete insisted that the four-year ban doesn’t mean the end of his boxing career as he will come back once he has served the ban.
“I have not taken a decision to retire. I told Ta Mla that boxing will never retire me. I will retire boxing. I worked very hard. I know I’m not at fault in everything. I have dedicated my life to the sport of boxing,” Tete said.
