Team GB has a proud history of success as far as the big men are concerned in boxing at the Olympics.
Audley Harrison sparked the run in 2000. Anthony Joshua’s gold medal success in 2012 paved the way for him becoming one of the biggest names in the sport. Joe Joyce left Rio with silver in 2016 while Frazer Clarke was part of the history-making team that dominated in Tokyo in 2021, picking up a bronze medal.
All four men fought in the super-heavyweight category with Delicious Orie next off the production line chasing gold at this summer’s Olympic Games in Paris.
Born in Moscow to a Nigerian father and Russian mother, the 27-year-old moved to the UK with his family to escape racism and seek better opportunities at the age of seven.
After initially arriving in London, he and his family moved to Birmingham with Orie later graduating from Aston University with a first class degree in economics. As far as boxing was concerned, he was a relatively late bloomer, not taking up the sport until he was 18 having previously excelled in basketball.
’I saw Anthony Joshua on TV,’ Orie recalled. ‘I thought to myself who is this guy? He looks good. I want to give it a go.’
Orie has already made serious inroads at amateur level. He celebrated gold medal success in the 2022 Commonwealth Games shortly after resolving his citizenship status to get a British passport. More success followed as he won the European Games in 2023, a triumph that secured him no2 seeding in Paris this summer.
Former world champion Anthony Crolla is among those who have tracked his incredible progress and believes it is on the biggest stage where the big man is at his most dangerous.
‘The improvement in him and the results he has got in European games and in qualifiers, it has been phenomenal,’ Crolla told Metro.co.uk, courtesy of Free Bets.
‘It is always tough to get a medal, absolutely. In amateur boxing at the Olympics, the draw is so important. But if the draw is kind to him, he has a great chance of medalling. One thing about Delicious; he produces his best form in championships, when the pressure is on.
‘We have seen that in qualifying. That’s when he has got his best results and he is definitely capable of getting a medal. There are a lot of good fighters in the division but there is no reason why he can’t bring a medal home.’
The comparisons between Orie and his hero and friend Joshua are already piling up. The two have already shared the ring together, sparring in the gym ahead of Joshua’s 2020 world title defence against Kubrat Pulev. While also sharing a Nigerian heritage and a huge 6ft 6inch frame, Orie was the same age Joshua was when he turned to the sport at 18 – relatively late compared to most leading amateur fighters.
Orie’s Olympic campaign will also be overseen by Rob McCracken, Joshua’s former trainer. The Team GB boxing chief guided Joshua through London 2012 and up the professional ranks as ‘AJ’ rose to the summit of the sport, becoming a two-time world champion under his guidance before they parted ways in 2021.
‘Rob understands me,’ said Orie. ‘Outside the ring, he’s seen talent from the beginning, and he knows how to polish that talent and make it the finished article.
‘I’ve got full confidence in him. I know what he’s done in the past and if I can achieve half of the things he’s done with some boxers, these guys have gone from nothing to the top of the game.
‘I know that I’m in a very good place, so all of my trust is in Rob and the team. I know I’m part of the best programme in the world.’
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