Delicious Orie was meant to be ‘the new Anthony Joshua’. Now he has to follow his own path | Boxing Newsnews24

Delicious Orie was meant to be the new Anthony Joshua.

A charismatic super-heavyweight in the GB squad, he had won the Commonwealth Games, he had won the European Games and he had won a place at the 2024 Olympic Games.

Of course, to follow that golden path to glory and wild professional boxing hype, he needed to medal in Paris last summer.

Instead disaster struck.

Despite a solid performance in his opening bout in Paris, he lost a split decision to Armenia’s Davit Chaloyan. The dream at once was over.

“I set out the bare minimum to achieve in the Olympics – to get a bronze medal. That was the absolute bare minimum. And not even being able to achieve that, when I went to my bed, woke up the next day, I thought the past eight years, I’ve sacrificed so much – pain, physical, emotional all of that – to not get what I want in the first place,” Orie told Sky Sports.

“The first thing that came into my mind, and this is me being honest, was I’m a failure. If I’m being honest with you. It was that bad. I’ve always wanted to get an Olympic tattoo. But I just feel like I don’t deserve it.

“It sounds horrible. Being an Olympian I know is a great achievement in itself. But as athletes we set bars for ourselves and if we don’t reach it, it’s very much black and white. You either reach it or you don’t reach it and I didn’t reach it.

“Yes, it has been eight years of my life that I sacrificed. Yes, it’s the only thing I envisioned winning that has real value to me. But it’s life.”

A different mindset for first pro fight

He is rebuilding now with a new boxing career. He will have his first professional boxing contest on April 5.

“I’m just trying to start again and not having to carry on that thing from last year into what I’m doing now,” Orie said. “I’m definitely a better athlete as a result.

“This time we’re not as focused on the point scoring but more on how much damage we can inflict on our opponent. So it’s a different mindset.”

He has to put that Olympic despair behind him as he plots a new course.

“I know I maybe never will but my aim and my mission in life is to get over things like that,” Orie said. “I’m sure I probably will watch it back one day, I’ll watch it back without that emotional attachment. It’ll be more a constructive than a destructive mentality.”

He also reflected: “This has allowed me to separate myself from Anthony Joshua. As much as I love the man, I think he’s great, he’s inspired me massively, I was really able to distinguish myself.

“I’ve got a different motive to him and different goals. Don’t get me wrong, I still want to be the best of the best but the reason behind that is different, I believe. So maybe this is the time now to diverge away.

“Whatever that route is, I’m no longer following AJ’s path. This is Delicious Orie’s path. And just like how he made a huge impact in the boxing world at the time when he was growing up making a name for himself, I’m sure I’ll make some sort of impact somehow, where I can reach out to different kinds of people and that would be huge for me if I could inspire a different segment of young adults and kids, whatever that segment is.

“I guess there’s a silver lining to everything.”

A future Itauma super-fight?

It’s natural for any new heavyweight prospect to be compared to Moses Itauma. The 20-year-old Itauma is already closing in on world level.

Orie, of course, is not on an immediate collision course with Itauma. But he plans on reaching the top echelon of the division and Itauma could well be at championship level by the time he gets there.

“I started boxing at 18 and he was the next big thing at 18. We’re on two completely different paths. So age doesn’t matter,” Orie said. “It’s about experience and how long you’ve been building yourself as a professional.”

Years ago, when Itauma was just a Junior category amateur, Orie sparred with him. “He might have been 16, 17. I remember him being strong, I remember him being really fast and someone who I had to really pay attention to when I was sparring,” Orie said. “[I thought] this guy’s got spite in him. This guy would take my chin off if I was a second too slow.”

One day, Orie hopes, a showdown could be a big fight for them both.

“I think that’s probably going to happen in the next however many years. I really, really rate Moses Itauma, I think he’s a great fighter and over the next few years there will be a build-up there,” Orie said.

“I do genuinely believe it’s going to sell out Wembley or Tottenham or wherever one day in the UK.”