Former world champion Zolani Tete of South Africa outclassed Filipino “King” Arthur Villanueva on Sunday to become the World Boxing Organization (WBO) world interim bantamweight champion.
All three judges submitted lopsided scores for Tete with Phil Edwards and Rose Lacend scoring it, 119-108 and Ingo Barrabas seeing it, 120-107 in the fight held at the Leicester Arena in Leicester, England.
“I did my best but Tete was a very good boxer and I can’t hit him,” Villanueva posted on his Facebook account.
“I thank everyone who supported and prayed for me in this fight. I lost but I don’t have regrets because I did my very best and for that I apologize to everyone.”
The Ilonggo’s woes started in the first round when he suffered a cut over his right eye due to an accidental headbutt. Tete’s jabs also found their targets denying Villanueva the chance to unload his bombs.
Thrown out of his game plan, Villanueva was almost deducted a point in the fifth when he hit Tete below the belt.
The African retaliated in the sixth round by knocking down Villanueva with a straight to the latter’s jaw. He knocked the ALA Boxing Gym star again in the 11th en-route to the dominating victory.
Tete improved to 25 wins with 19 knockouts and three losses while the 28-year-old Villanueva of Bago City, Negros Occidental suffered his second loss with 30 wins and 16KOs.
The 29-year-old Tete will challenge for the WBO world bantamweight title which was vacated on Saturday by Marlon Tapales who failed to meet the weight for his title defense against Shohei Omori in Japan.
If Omori loses to Tapales, Tete will automatically become the new regular champion as per WBO rules. The fight is still ongoing at presstime.
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