Delicious has a taste for gold
From Russia with gloves, Orie is determined to achieve Olympic glory – and show how lucky we are in Britain, writes James Gray
All Delicious Orie ever really wanted was to go to university and make his parents proud. But he couldn’t because he didn’t have a British passport. That anger drove him to a boxing gym, and this summer – he hopes – it will drive him to winning an Olympic gold medal wearing a Team GB vest.
His story is unique. Born in his mother’s native Russia, halfNigerian Delicious – his name was inspired by Delious Kennedy, from the Nineties R’n’B band called All4-One – came to Britain as a sevenyear-old and was amazed by the country he found.
“I was in Year Four and I just got a feeling of opportunity,” Orie, 26, tells i. “There’s always opportunity here. Like, ‘You’re not very good at English? Here’s extra English lessons. You don’t have access to food? Here’s food, free food, lunch’.” He says he felt instantly inspired. “You’ve got the opportunity, take advantage of it, do something great from it,” Orie (right) adds.
“There’s no time to moan and complain. The only reason I was able to do that was because I experienced hardship in Russia. “Coming here from the get-go at seven, it was like, ‘I’m going on to uni in the UK’. That’s the No 1 aim.” His parents had always instilled a strong academic focus. When he took up basketball, in part to help make friends and “understand the culture of being an English kid”, and quickly developed an aptitude for it, he was never allowed to duck out of lessons or skip homework. “Basketball didn’t stop me or distract me from school,” Orie says. “I got good grades, paid attention in school, and was a teacher’s pet.” It is not the kind of backstory you expect of a heavyweight boxer. More often they talk about being an over-energetic kid or a tearaway teen, diverted to a boxing gym in the hope of channelling aggression in a positive way. Orie’s arrival at a gym was also born of anger, of frustration at a system he did not understand.
First, his dream of playing basketball at university in America was dashed because he only had UK residency and did not have a British passport, meaning he couldn’t travel to the US.
“I was basically British. All of my friends were from England. I didn’t know anything about Russia. And it was like, ‘Oh, sorry, you can’t do that because you haven’t got a piece of paper to say that you can travel’. “Some of my mates went out there and got scholarships in Arizona and played, and that absolutely destroyed me.”
One evening, Anthony Joshua appeared on the TV. He had just become heavyweight world champion for the first time. Orie knew nothing about boxing, but something about
Joshua piqued his interest.
“I didn’t know who he was and
I thought, ‘He’s a good-looking guy, what’s his story?’,”
Orie says.
“I was initially inspired by [former
Chicago Bulls small forward] Luol Deng, who came over to the UK from Sudan and played basketball.
“Joshua was like the second version, he started boxing at 18 years old and was able to change his life by boxing at the Olympics and then becoming professional.
“So I was like, ‘I’m going to do this’. And I think it was just a mixture of frustration, a little bit of ignorance and just anger. All these things come together and it was like, ‘I’m going to be the best boxer in Great Britain, I’m going to represent Great Britain at the Olympics, I’m going to turn professional’.”
Orie also set his sights on a degree in the UK. But again he was turned away. He had good A-levels and wanted to study economics. He applied for a student loan but was told that his lack of citizenship meant he could not.
He took a gap year and worked to try to raise the money to cover the cost of a university education. “I was working in McDonald’s, working in warehouses, I worked at Sports Direct, I was working two jobs, at Home Bargains, I was doing day-nights. I was a bouncer doing security, even though I’d never been in a club in my life,” Orie says. He then connected with a charity who successfully argued his case to the student finance body, based on the fact he had lived in the UK since the age of seven. Four years later, Orie emerged from Aston University with a First in economics and management, a British passport – and a burgeoning amateur boxing career.
“I am British and I’ve always thought it all my life. I love the British culture,” Orie adds.
“But having that piece of paper... People don’t realise how much opportunity you have with just a passport. It just opens the door.” Orie has since won European and Commonwealth gold, and now hopes to follow Lennox Lewis, Audley Harrison and Joshua by winning the super-heavyweight Olympic title and turning pro.
But the silverware is not the only thing Orie is after this summer. “I want to tell people how amazing Great Britain is,” Orie says. “There’s many countries out there you will not get these opportunities, in order to be where I am today. That’s my aim: get that gold medal and push that message about Great Britain.
“You get a negative sentiment. You see it all the time on social media, especially people my age or younger. And it makes me so angry. You don’t understand.
“Try growing up in Russia. You will have no opportunities. Nothing.” Aldi are proud Official Partners of TeamGB & ParalympicsGB, supporting all athletes through to Paris 2024.