Golden Delicious Orie set his sights on eclipsing idol Anthony Joshua’s achievements after surviving an almighty scare to be crowned Commonwealth boxing champion.
Super heavyweight Orie, 25, lost the final’s opening round to Indian Sagar Ahlawat before thriving on deafening support to cut his opponent’s left eye and take a unanimous points victory at Birmingham’s NEC, just 20 minutes from home.
Born outside of Moscow to a Russian mother and Nigerian father, Orie spoke no English when he fled racism and arrived on these shores aged seven.
Having won an almighty fight to be granted a British passport last year, he now has his sights set on replicating Joshua’s Olympic gold for Team GB at Paris 2024.
He said: “I’ve always said this since I got my British passport. I’m so proud to be English and hopefully today I’ve made everyone proud in England.
“I will be doing this until the Paris Games. After that I’m going to turn professional, and the England flag will be with me forever.
“The sky’s the only limit. My inspiration has always been Anthony Joshua and that’s the bare minimum. We’re obviously going to excel that but that’s how it works in life. The next generation will excel me.
“I can’t wait for Paris. It’s only a short trip down the road as well so there’s going to be a massive crowd and I can’t wait to be representing Great Britain this time. It’s going to be amazing.”
6ft 6in Orie’s initial dream was to play basketball in the NBA, but he stepped into the ring for the first time aged 19 having been inspired by Joshua’s world title win over Charles Martin.
Taking solace from the fact Joshua also did not get into the sport until he reached adulthood, Orie has progressed through the ranks at speed, and this week it seemed inevitable he would top the podium in his hometown.
After a straightforward semi-final win, Orie watched SpongeBob SquarePants cartoons to unwind ahead of the gold medal bout.
However, he appeared to enter the biggest fight of his career a touch too relaxed as Ahlawat grabbed the initiative to lead on all five judges’ scorecards at the first bell.
Three minutes in and it looked like Orie would have to channel former heavyweight world champion Joshua’s ability to bounce back more than anything else.
The European bronze medallist admitted he was worried at that stage but told people never to doubt him again after wrestling back the initiative in entertaining style.
He said: “Maybe they doubted me out here in the first round but hopefully it will happen again, and I’ll prove people wrong if they think I’m going to lose, because that’s not what’s going to happen to me in the ring.
“I was told by my coaches I was down and of course I was getting a little bit worried, but I knew I was going to turn it around.
“I used the support from the crowd. Honestly, they pulled me through today. They were amazing.”
With family on either side of the Ukraine conflict, Orie said he was fighting to put a smile on faces at home and away.
After achieving that, the emotion of his achievement set in.
“My mum and dad were here, and I think I cried a bit too much on my dad’s shoulder but here we are,” said Orie.
Like any good act, Orie returned for an encore, grabbing the arena’s microphone to tell anyone watching that you can achieve your dreams having made an emphatic start to realising his.
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