By Terence Dooley
South Africa’s Zolani Tete (23-3, 19 KOs) floored Jose Santos Gonzalez (22-4, 12 early) in the second round, out-boxed the Mexican then took him out clinically at 0:37 of the seventh round at Liverpool's Echo Arena earlier tonight.
The former IBF Super flyweight titlist used his range, power and footwork to stay one step ahead throughout before stopping his 25-year-old foe, picking up the vacant IBF International bantamweight title in the process.
It was his first visit to Liverpool’s Echo Arena since his eight-round destruction of Paul Butler for the IBF belt in March of last year. The knowledgeable local fight fans warmed to him, though, and promoter Frank Warren vowed that this will be the first of many fights here in the U.K. for the 28-year-old southpaw.
“Let’s talk about the U.K., Lee Haskins and Jamie Mcdonnell on the same night—that’s how good he is,” said Warren when speaking to Alex Steedman of BoxNation, who are televising tonight’s show here in the U.K. “He’s a quality fighter. He’ll be boxing in the U.K. regularly.”
“The last time I was here it was a good fight,” (under)stated Tete. “I came here, told myself I want to entertain the people of Liverpool, because they love and support boxing, and that’s what I tried to do here.”
Please send news and views to @Terryboxing.
