IN ANOTHER world, Delicious Orie might never have turned professional.
After his heartbreak at the Olympics, via a controversial judges’ decision, the 27-year-old found himself at perhaps the biggest crossroad he will ever experience.
Turn left, take the blue pill, dedicate your life to earning money through belligerent and unscripted violence. Turn right, a red pill, and a life in America as a wrestler. Yes, there would be hard work, physical exhaustion and ultimately combat but fewer men punching him in the face and a far more guaranteed income.
But for the man born in Russia, it was never really a difficult choice. Left he turned.
“It’s quite deep, to be honest,” he says, when asked to explain why he made the decision to turn professional with Frank Warren last week.
“I went to Florida, I experienced it, they sold it to me. Well, I didn’t buy it but they sold it to me. It was the complete package of the WWE being the biggest entity in the entertainment industry and I had the potential to be this big superstar, etc.
“But I took a few weeks off after that and I really thought to be myself ‘what do I want to achieve as Delicious Orie? What do I want to leave for my kids?
“And that is the story of someone who works really hard to try to inspire as many people as possible and there’s no other sport where you work harder than boxing. It’s the most brutal thing you can get involved with.
“You do have to work hard as a wrestler to get to the very top but I think boxing is a lot more fulfilling for me if I go out there and achieve great things. It will make a life worth living.
“So, I thought to myself ‘I’m going to become a boxer’ and when I’m 50, 60 years old and looking back I will think to myself, ‘whatever it is I’ve done, I did everything I possibly could to be the best I could be in the real world’. That’s why I decided to go with boxing.”
It is a rousing and almost Churchilian explanation from a man always noted for his articulation. With a degree in economics and management from Aston University, Orie has not necessarily had the normal route into boxing. He was a latecomer to the sport, inspired by the fact that Anthony Joshua, the Olympic gold medallist and two-time world heavyweight champion, also started boxing aged 18.
“I knew it from when I saw AJ’s hand getting raised,” he adds. “I had never been punched in the face before but I was like, ‘yeah, I’m going to do it’. I did the research and found out he started boxing at 18 so I said ‘right, I’m going to be heavyweight champion of the world’. Then I experienced getting punched in the face and thought, ‘okay, this is going to take longer than I expected’.
“I was 18 or 19 so I knew I didn’t have much time. I just put all my eggs in that one basket and it has paid off. I never had a fighting bone in my body before 18, I’ve been learning the craft for eight years so I have more miles in the tank. I’ve got three more years of climbing to fill out as a heavyweight and build into it and then I can ride it out it for as long as these big guys do it.”
Considering Derek Chisora is still headlining at the age of 41, Orie is only a baby by comparison. But having turned over as a Commonwealth Games gold medallist and a Team GB Olympian, there will be a certain pressure on him to hit the ground running as a professional. But Orie counters.
“I’m not in a hurry at all. You cannot rush greatness. You really cannot. I feel like I’m in the perfect time actually. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not in a position to waste time so I couldn’t go out and experience the WWE for a year in America. That would have been to a massive detriment to my progression as a professional boxer. But I feel like I’m in the right spot.”
Orie is asked whether he has been fuelled by what happened at the Olympics, when he suffered a shock defeat to Armenian Davit Chaloyan in his first outing at the Games. Orie had been one of Team GB’s gold medal hopes but the 3-2 split meant he fell at the first hurdle in Paris.
“It has definitely fuelled my desire to work harder,” he says. “I lost and it hurt. It took a few months to really appreciate what I have around me. Then I could get back to being grounded, pick myself up and get back to work.
“Hopefully, it will be one of those things where I look back and think it has done me good. At the moment, I’m still feeling it and it’s not nice. I don’t know when I won’t feel it to be honest. I guess that’s just part of life – sometimes you just don’t get what you want. That’s the experience I had to go through.”
The truth is, it was just another experience in an already colourful life for Orie, who arrived in England aged seven totally unable to speak the language after those first few tumultuous years in Russia.
“You’re shaped by what you experience from 0-7 years old,” he adds. “And that was when I was in Russia. I was different to everybody else, and felt a little bit not part of society.
“My mum and dad had big financial struggles and it was difficult watching my dad go through the racism, etc. I think when I moved to the UK I had a sense of heightened responsibility and, from seven years old, it was like, ‘right, it’s up to me now’. My mum and dad gave me the opportunity to work hard in the UK.
“I couldn’t speak a word of English and I remember being in year four and thinking: ‘My job is to nail English so I can nail the SATs and then do my GCSEs, A-levels and then get into university’.
“I still feel like that seven-year-old. It was 20 years ago but I still have that burning desire – and it happened to be for boxing. I have that flame within me to look after the people around me.
“I felt like picking the WWE route would have been easier, being a wrestler is hard, but nothing compares to boxing in my opinion. Maybe it was a subconscious decision to pick something harder. I feel if I went out there and did that [wrestling] as my base, I would fall into some sort of depression or something. It would have been, ‘you’ve sold yourself well too early and you’re still more than capable at 27, fit and healthy with years of peaking and decided to sell yourself early’. I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself to be honest.”
Now he has to live this life punching for pay. In Warren and Queensberry, he has joined a stable already teaming with heavyweights, with the likes of David Adeleye, Fabio Wardley and Moses Itauma and current IBF champion Daniel Dubois not to mention the recently retired Tyson Fury. But, as well as that, it was Warren’s son George who sealed the deal.
“I’ve met all the promoters,” he says. “Everyone, had meals, sat down and met them at their offices.
“But I’d never knew of George Warren before.. I went to go see him in his office and I was instantly impressed. I was impressed by his professionalism, the way he carried himself. I knew deep down that not only could we make a lot of money together, we could improve boxing especially at heavyweight.
“Of course, the track record of Queensberry is building their fighters properly and steadily. It feels like a natural progression. I am a slow and steady learner. I will get there, I just need time to get there and the right investment, and I think Queensberry is the best place for that.”
Now it’s his job to prove that WWE’s loss is heavyweight boxing’s gain.
