Tete looked up to South African former world champions Vuyani Bungu and Welcome Ncita while in the unpaid ranks.
He claims to have over 400 amateur fights, only three of which were losses, as amateur he met Hekkie Budler former WBA world minify and WBA and IBF World junior flyweight champion and The Ring champ theytwo times in South African national games Tete won one and lost one to Hekkie.
[2] Tete went on to face Moruti Mthalane for the IBF flyweight title, suffering his first loss with a round 5 technical knockout (TKO).
He received another opportunity to fight in an IBF eliminator, but lost a majority decision (112–115, 112–115, 113–113) to Juan Alberto Rosas.
Tete would face Teiru Kinoshita in July 2014 for the vacant title, winning a comfortable unanimous decision (119–109, 119–109, 118–110).
[5] After one successful defence, he chose to vacate the title rather than fight mandatory challenger McJoe Arroyo.
[10] In a highly unexciting bout, Tete still manage to get a unanimous decision victory, winning 120–108 on all three scorecards.
[11] Tete was scheduled to face Nonito Donaire on April 27, 2019, but pulled out of the fight due to a shoulder injury.