Zolani Tete injures shoulder, out of Nonito Donaire fight

UPDATE: #3: Stephon Young has been officially announced as Nonito Donaire’s new opponent for Saturday. — Scott

UPDATE #2: Rachel Donaire, Nonito’s manager and wife, tells ESPN that they plan to fight on Saturday:

“We can’t control the opponent, just as much as if Zolani — or any opponent — came back with a positive drug test from VADA. It’s nothing that we should pay the price for, when it was not under our control. ... We made the sacrifices. We’ve been training for Tete since the second week of November.”

There’s been nothing official from the World Boxing Super Series as of yet, but all signs are pointing to Donaire facing Stephon Young on Saturday. — Scott

UPDATE: Mike Coppinger is saying that Donaire will face Stephon Young (18-1-3, 7 KO), and the winner will go on to the tournament final. — Scott

The World Boxing Super Series has been surprisingly short on out-of-ring injuries, but even it isn’t immune to the standard boxing tournament foibles. Bantamweight semifinalist Zolani Tete has injured his shoulder just days ahead of his scheduled bout with Nonito Donaire this Saturday. Donaire will face a replacement opponent; Mike Coppinger raised the possibility of that being Stephon Young, who is currently booked on the undercard.

This isn’t the first time the injury bug has claimed one of Donaire’s (39-5, 25 KO) opponents in this tournament; his quarterfinal bout with Ryan Burnett was cut short when the latter suffered a back injury in the fourth round, giving Donaire his first bantamweight title since 2011. Tete (28-3, 21 KO), meanwhile, took a decision over Russian Olympian Misha Aloyan in Ekaterinburg.

Saturday’s show still features a slobberknocker between Regis Prograis and Kiryl Relikh. Donaire’s/TBA’s opponent will be decided on May 18th in Glasgow when Naoya Inoue faces Emmanuel Rodriguez.