Zolani ‘Last-Born’ Tete will be looking to successfully retain his WBO bantamweight crown with a victory over seasoned veteran John Riel Casimero at the Birmingham Arena, this Saturday night.
Tete most recently defended his title with a unanimous points verdict over undefeated Mikhail Aloyan in the quarter-final of the World-Boxing-Super-Series but was unable to progress further in the tournament; formally withdrawing after sustaining an injury.
The South-African was originally scheduled to face then-WBA counterpart Nonito Donaire in a unifying semi-final showdown before these plans were scuppered by his injury.
Donaire himself progressed to the semi-final after opponent Ryan Burnett suffered a freak back injury; one which ultimately hastened Burnett’s decision to cut short what was once a promising career to retire a few weeks ago.
Tete is presumably determined to reestablish himself as a relevant figure in the bantamweight division by making a statement with the manner of his victory over former IBF champion Casimero.
Incidentally, The Filipino’s last venture on British soil was a fruitful one, stopping Charlie Edwards in September 2016 at the O2 Arena in Greenwich, London.
However, ultimately we can expect Tete’s freakish dimensions to be a decisive factor in this fight, as he outpoints Casimero over twelve rounds. Whether this will be a comfortable victory or not is something yet to be determined, and depends largely on Casimero’s approach to this fight.
Sam Bowen also will be defending his British super-featherweight title against Belfast’s Anthony Cacace.
The Leicestershire native successfully retained his title with an impressive stoppage victory over Glaswegian Jordan McCrory in April, and will be hoping to extend his winning run under the guidance of Carl Greaves.
Numerous other titles will also be contested on the card. Chris Jenkins makes the second defence of his British welterweight crown against Liam Taylor, following successive wins over Johnny Garton and Paddy Gallagher, while undefeated super-middleweight Lerrone Richards faces Lennox Clarke for the vacant British middleweight crown.
Liverpudlian WBO European light-welterweight champion Sam Maxwell also faces the similarly undefeated Connor Parker in a defence of his title, while Slough’s Hamza Sheeraz faces Ryan Kelly for the vacant welterweight equivalent.
Article by: Navi Singh
Follow Navi on Twitter at: @DarkMan________