Zolani "Last Born" Tete's road to success has always been thorny and now his mental strength is being tested, says his manager Mlandeli Tengimfene, reacting to the burglary and theft at the boxer's house in Mdantsane, East London, at the weekend.

Tete is in camp in Johannesburg preparing to voluntarily defend his WBO bantam-weight belt against No3 contender Siboniso "Tiger" Gonya of KwaZulu-Natal in a local shootout in Belfast, Northern Ireland capital, next Saturday.

Speaking at the Urban Warriors Gym in Sandton where Tete's public workout attracted an army of journalists on Tuesday, Tengimfene said: "The devil is at play, but we will not allow anything to derail Zolani now.

"Fortunately, no one got harmed during the burglary.

"Losing his belongings is bad, but that cannot be given priority now ahead of the fight.

"We've had similar or even more difficult challenges before and we were able to sweep them aside and soldier on. He has nerves of steel."

Tete got very sick before he won the IBF junior bantamweight belt in 2014.

There were even suspicions of witchcraft. That is when Tengimfene resorted to setting up a training camp in Joburg.

He was within the required weight limit for the pre-fight medical conducted by Boxing SA manager Archie Nyingwa.

The supremely built gym warrior tipped the scale at 57.46kg.