\n<\/p>\n
“I fear that I would have ended up being a world champion but a very depressed, sad and miserable world champion.”<\/b><\/p>\n
Delicious Orie had the world at his feet when he made his professional debut a year ago. <\/p>\n
After the Paris Olympics there was a bidding war for him despite the heavyweight failing to win a medal. <\/p>\n
Frank Warren’s Queensberry eventually saw off Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom as well as interest from the WWE to sign him.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
“I wanted to pull out before the boxing exposed me,” he tells BBC Sport.<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
He set high standards for himself, even as a seven-year-old realising the opportunities available to him in the UK.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
“There was no plan B, there was no other thing, it was just tunnel vision to win that medal,” he says.<\/p>\n
“So the fact that I didn’t magnified the feeling even more when my hand wasn’t raised.<\/p>\n
“I gave everything to the sport, I missed everything – happiness, birthdays, weddings, funerals, everything,” he adds.<\/p>\n
“Knowing that I could never achieve that again when I didn’t have my hand raised, that was very sobering.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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