Boxing Results: John Riel Casimero destroys Zolani Tete

By Boxing News - 11/30/2019 - Comments

By Chris Williams: The speedy fast John Riel Casimero (29-4, 20 KOs) was too much for WBO bantamweight champion Zolani Tete (28-4, 21 KOs) in stopping him in the 3rd round on Saturday night at the Arena Birmingham in Birmingham, England. The official time of the stoppage was at 2:14 of round 3.

The former two division world champion Casimero dropped the 31-year-old Tete three times in round 3. After the third knockout, referee Steve Gray stopped the contest. Tete, 31, was in bad shape, and he was unable to defend himself. In fact, he never recovered from the first knockdown in the 3rd round.

Casimero badly hurt Tete with right hand

Tete was dropped for the first time in round 3 when Casimero  came forward, and threw a whipping right hand. The shot didn’t do much, but Tete turned sideways to Casimero after eating a right hand. Casimero then took advantage of Tete not keeping his eye on him, and nailed him with a shot to the head that sent him down on all fours on the canvas. Zolani got up at the count of 5, and his legs were gone.

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It wasn’t a huge punch, but Tete didn’t see it coming because he was ducking. After Tete got back to his feet, he staggered to the far corner. The way Tete looked, it was obvious that he wasn’t going to be able to last. There was too much time left in the round, Casimero wasn’t going to take it easy on him.

Tete in control of fight in rounds 1 and 2

Things were going smoothly for the 5’9″ Tete in rounds 1 and 2, as he was controlling the action against the shorter 5’4″ Casimero. However, one could sense that Tete was going to have problems with the foot speed of Casimero sooner or later.

The way the Filipino slugger was able to close distance rapidly using his fast feet, it was like watching a young Manny Pacquiao. Tete looked vulnerable when Casimero would charge forward looking to swat him with right hands. In the first two rounds, Tete did a good job of avoiding Casimero rights when he swarm. A lot of the big shots that Casimero attempted either missed or didn’t land with a lot of power.

Casimero now in position to face Naoya Inoue

With the victory, Casimero, 30, captured his third division  world title. What’s more important than that is it puts him in position to face IBF/WBA bantamweight champion Naoya ‘Monster’ Inoue in a unification fight in 2020 That’s a fight that’ll make Casimero a lot of money.

Tete was hoping he would be the one that would get the fight against Inoue, but that won’t be happening now. If Tete is lucky, Casimero will give him a rematch. However, there’s no point in Casimero doing that when he’s got a big payday fight available against Inoue. Casimero vs. Nonito Donaire would be a great fight too.

This is an embarrassing defeat for Tete, who was completely obliterated. Once Casimero had Tete hurt, it was a rout, and there nothing that could save him. The way that Casimero beat Tete, a rematch likely would be the same result. Casimero is too fast for Tete, and he has a style that would take him a long time to figure out. Tete hasn’t faced guys like Casimero. This was like a smaller, younger version of Pacquiao, and there was no way that Tete was going to be able to beat him.