Delicious Orie ready to seize the moment at Paris 2024

A little before 10pm local time on Monday night, Orie will step into the ring at the North Paris Arena to face Armenia’s Davit Chaloyan in the first round of the Olympic super heavyweight tournament, the start of what the Bilston ace has described as the “Grand Finale” of his amateur boxing career.

Orie’s ambitions do not end in France. Whatever happens tonight or over the next fortnight, the 27-year-old’s intention is to turn professional after the Games. Becoming world heavyweight champion remains the ultimate aim.

But the Olympics are a huge part of a dream born less than a decade ago, when a then 18-year-old Orie watched Anthony Joshua claim his first world crown and a few days later walked into Wolverhampton Amateur Boxing Club asking how he followed that path.

Born in Moscow to a Nigerian father and Russian mother, his biggest fight in those early years during a rapid rise took place outside the ring, a battle against bureaucracy and paperwork as he sought to secure the British passport which would allow him to take the first step on the journey.

“I have to be honest with you, there were times when I did think this wouldn’t happen,” he says.

“There have been times when it was: “what do we now?’ There were loads of roadblocks and it was never in my control.

“It was like: ‘You don’t have a passport, you can’t represent Great Britain’. So what now?

“No matter how much hard work I put in it did not matter. You think: ‘Do I turn professional, or do I find something else to do?’