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TV treat for fight starved fans

Zolani Tete, right, lashes out at Moruti Mthalane with a right during a previous fight. Tete will face Siboniso Gonya in Ireland tomorrow.
Zolani Tete, right, lashes out at Moruti Mthalane with a right during a previous fight. Tete will face Siboniso Gonya in Ireland tomorrow.
Image: LEFTY SHIVAMBU

Sanity has prevailed as the history-making shoot-out between Zolani Tete and Siboniso Gonya will be televised live from Northern Ireland tomorrow night.

SuperSport have confirmed via its official Twitter account that the pay-channel will beam the fight from the SSE Arena in Belfast from 10pm on SS10.

There were concerns that the local fight public would not see this battle of left-handers when Tete defends his WBO bantamweight belt for the first time against Gonya.

This is the biggest boxing match involving locals based on the fact that the WBO is one of the top four sanctioning bodies, the others being the WBC, WBA and IBF.

It took South Africa 14 years to produce a WBO champion when Tete was awarded the bantamweight belt in April.

The last local boxer to win that belt was Corrie Sanders who upset the bookies by knocking out Wladmir Klistchko in two rounds for the heavyweight strap in Germany in 2003.

Tomorrow's bout will form part of the bill that will be staged by Tete's UK promoter Frank Warren whose intention really is to afford Carl "The Jackal" Frampton an opportunity to redeem himself.

Frampton, from Belfast, last fought when he lost his WBA Super featherweight title to Leo Santa Cruz in January.

The bill has been dubbed the "Frampton Reborn" and his non-title fight against Mexican Horacio Garcia will be the main event.

The main supporting bout is the IBF junior bantamweight championship between holder Jerwin Ancajas and Jamie Conlan.

The beauty is that the WBO title will return home, irrespective of the result.

Gonya won the WBO International title in April, and for his victory against Immanuel Naidjala in Namibia, the WBO ratings committee placed him third on the ratings.

Tete, from Mdantsane near East London, chose Gonya (from Mtubatuba in KwaZulu-Natal) for his first voluntary defence.

Tete - who has promised to get it over and done with in four rounds - boasts 20 knockouts from 25 wins against three losses, while Gonya has 11 wins from 12 bouts.

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