Tete's head in the clouds after title in the sky

After a weekend drenched in tears following the death of his former trainer Nick Durandt, Zolani Tete became the dual world champion while on a flight from the UK to South Africa.

Tete became probably the first boxer to be crowned world champion while in the air and he landed in Johannesburg yesterday morning up in the clouds.

He had beaten Arthur Villanueva of the Philippines in a fight that was upgraded to a WBO interim world bantamweight title clash at Leicester Arena on Saturday night.

The fight was supposed to have been an eliminator for the right to fight for the world title - until a series of dramatic developments took place at the weekend.

First, Tete beat Villanueva, handing him his second defeat in 32 bouts, winning every round to capture the interim title.

Then WBO champion Marlon Tapales, also of the Philippines, failed to make the weight for his voluntary title defence against Japanese boxer Shohei Omori on the same day. In a fight stripped of its world title status, Tapales rallied to stop Omori in the 11th round, handing Tete the belt on a silver platter. Had the Japanese fighter won, Tete would still have had to fight for the title.

After dedicating his win to the late Durandt, who died in a motorcycle accident a day earlier, Tete was flying home unaware he was a fully-fledged champion.

He had no knowledge of the developments that had conspired to hand him the belt because he was on his flight from Birmingham to Dubai, from where he was scheduled to board his connecting flight to South Africa.