“I fear that I would have ended up being a world champion but a very depressed, sad and miserable world champion.”
Delicious Orie had the world at his feet when he made his professional debut a year ago.
After the Paris Olympics there was a bidding war for him despite the heavyweight failing to win a medal.
Frank Warren’s Queensberry eventually saw off Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom as well as interest from the WWE to sign him.
He was the next big thing in heavyweight boxing. And then a month later, Orie announced his shock decision to walk away from boxing altogether.
“I wanted to pull out before the boxing exposed me,” he tells BBC Sport.
“I turned pro for the money, I needed the money, only to realise that money gives you a little bit of happiness, it really does, but it gives you zero fulfilment. Nothing. You feel nothing.”
Orie was a standout fighter in the amateur ranks despite only taking up the sport aged 18. Originally from Russia, he moved to the UK as a child with his family.
He set high standards for himself, even as a seven-year-old realising the opportunities available to him in the UK.
Orie worked for years to become part of Team GB and secure a regular income from boxing. His goal, over a near-decade journey, was to be Olympic champion. When that did not happen, Orie felt a shift inside him, even if it was subtle.
“There was no plan B, there was no other thing, it was just tunnel vision to win that medal,” he says.
“So the fact that I didn’t magnified the feeling even more when my hand wasn’t raised.
“I gave everything to the sport, I missed everything – happiness, birthdays, weddings, funerals, everything,” he adds.
“Knowing that I could never achieve that again when I didn’t have my hand raised, that was very sobering.”
