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ANTHONY OGOGO has had SIX eye operations, was forced to remortgage his house and been told to quit.
But the Lowestoft fighter is not ready to throw the towel in on his dream to be a world champion.
In fact, it is his belief that he can win a world title that is firing him on.
“I’m doing this because I know I can still reach the top,” he said.
Ogogo will celebrate his 30th birthday in two days but it has been just over two years since he stepped into the ring.
Disaster
That night was a disaster as his left eye socket “exploded” and his trainer Tony Sims was forced to withdraw him in the eighth round of a middleweight clash against Craig Cunningham.
It was the first professional defeat for the London 2012 Olympic bronze medal winner, who has also been plagued by shoulder and Achilles injuries.
“My eyes were like a car with one headlight up and one headlight down but one was also twisted because my eye was getting bashed,” said Ogogo. “I got a ®Êby CHRIS McKENNA forearm in the eye and my eye socket exploded. I had numerous fractures.
“The eye is the most sensitive area in the body, the muscles that move them are like cling film and once they are damaged they can’t repair themselves.”
Boxing is full of people who like to see others suffer, especially those with a profile like Ogogo whose TV appearances include Strictly Come Dancing.
But as he poured his heart out on social media last week when the painkillers wore off following his sixth eye operation in Boston, the overwhelming reaction couldn’t be anything but sympathy.
There were tears, some filled with blood from his eye, as Ogogo questioned why he was putting himself through it all. “There’s been six operations, two injections, a lot of complications,” he said. “This last operation is it. This is the last muscle around my eye that can be operated on.
“I’ve rolled the dice one last time. Fingers crossed I can get a bit of luck after a career of adversity.
“I’m a very optimistic person, I’m a glass-half-full person. If I wasn’t I’d have quit a long time ago.
“One doctor said to me one time, ‘I saw you on Question of Sport the other night, do you enjoy that stuff?’
“I went, ‘Yeah I quite enjoy it’ and then he said, ‘If I was you I’d focus on that because you’re not going to box again’. I thought, ‘Bloody hell, that is charming’.
“Obviously my family want me to be safe but they also want me to be happy.
“I want to give this one good go to really show the world how good I can be because nobody has seen it.”
Ogogo will now wait for his eyes to heal again from the latest operation before hoping to satisfy the British Boxing Board of Control that he is fit to fight again.
When we speak he has just finished a salad after his morning run.
Despite all he has been through, he is still living like an athlete.
“If something goes wrong and I can never fight again, at least I know I have done everything,” Ogogo added.
“I will be able to die a content man because I have done everything in my power and still it wasn’t meant to be.
“I haven’t earned anything from boxing because I’ve had to put it all back into my career to pay for medical bills.
“But I’m not doing this for money, I’m doing this so that I can lift that belt above my head one day.
“Since I was 12 years old I’ve had one desire and now I want to see it through to the end.”