‘Just Delicious’ Orie: Team GB’s latest boxing sensation fighting for glory at the European Games

Joe Frazier was ‘Smokin’, Mike Tyson was ‘Iron’ and Evander Holyfield was ‘The Real Deal’. But British super heavyweight boxer Delicious Orie, who can secure his spot at Paris 2024 with a victory in his semi-final at the European Games on 30 June, is just happy to be himself.

“I’d like to just stick with the name Delicious, because I think my dad just figured out the nickname from the get-go,” the +92kg fighter said with a loud laugh in an exclusive interview with Olympics.com before his high-stakes semi-final bout in Poland.

However, perhaps that will now change, after a quirk with the way boxing bouts are announced on the big screen at these Games became a lightbulb moment for Orie and his potential boxing moniker.

“I don’t know if you noticed, but on the screen here when I’m boxing, my middle name is Justin and it cuts off and it says, ‘Just Delicious’. I might take that, you know!” he said.

Orie’s opponents here in Poland and at last year’s Commonwealth Games in Birmingham where he won an impressive gold medal have got used to the taste of his power and ram-rod jab penetrating through their guards.

Perhaps ‘Just Delicious’ is an apt nickname after all.

The journey to gold: Delicious Orie ticking boxes on mission to greatness

Orie’s goals were set long ago.

Having started boxing at 18 years old, an age considered late for a fighter, the now 26-year-old defined his career goals when he first stepped into the ring.

“Olympic medal, gold medal, world champion…” - all of those may be typical answers you’d expect to hear from an elite-level amateur who has been marked with the potential to reach the very top in his game.

But for Orie, there is also an ambition that extends beyond his sport. One that he sees himself chasing long after he has hung up his boxing gloves.

“[I want] to inspire as many people as I possibly can, especially young adults and the younger generation, making them believe it’s very much possible to achieve the things they want to achieve,” he told us.

“It doesn’t have to be boxing, it can be anything, whatever age they are too. It’s very much possible, they’ve just got to put their minds to it.

“But I don’t think I’ll ever tick that box off because it’s continuous.”

Delicious Orie: “I’ve told Anthony Joshua, ‘If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t be competing’”

Britain has a fine pedigree in the Olympic super heavyweight boxing division – the highest of the weight categories where there is no upper limit.

From gold medallists Audley Harrison and Anthony Joshua, to silver medallist Joe Joyce and Tokyo 2020 bronze medallist Frazer Clark, the standards Team GB have set over the years make them one of the most formidable nations in the division.

At 6”6 with as much boxing nous as fighting spirit, Orie looks like a natural fit to be the next in this line of great boxers.

But he is also well aware of the influence their past exploits have had on his own progression as a boxer.

“I’ve told Anthony Joshua himself after one of our last sparring sessions, ‘Look, if it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t even be competing,” Orie admitted. “Because the likes of himself, Joyce, Frazer and Audley Harrison, they made me believe it was possible to do it, to achieve it.

“I was considered very late to start boxing at 18 and to perform at the level I’m at now, in a few years, for me they are very, very important and gave me the confidence to go out there and be on that podium myself. And I hope I’ll be doing the same thing, passing on the torch to the next person in a couple of years.”

• Delicious Orie: Against all odds

Delicious Orie: Learning from the greats “inside and outside the ring”

And it’s not just the influence of watching these boxers in the past that has inspired Orie. He’s even had the chance to get in the ring with some of them in sparring sessions, including two-time world champion Joshua.

“To be fair, the first couple of rounds I was just in awe,” Orie said of his first session with the 2012 Olympic champion.

“To be honest, I didn’t mind him punching me in the face. So I probably didn’t learn that much! I was just star struck like a little fan [laughs].

“But outside the ring I’ve learned a lot from him. He gave me a few tips here and there inside and outside the ring. Little things like weight management. As a heavyweight you don’t really have to watch your weight technically, but he’s given me advice on weight management, how to deal with pressure and I couldn’t ask for a better role model than that.

“He’s been there, done that and he’s still got time for someone like me who’s following his steps to where he is today.”

Delicious Orie: Sound advice for those who want to follow in his footsteps

The performances of Joshua have seen him become a hero to many young children who dream about following his path.

If Orie continues his own form, at these European Games, and – if things go to plan – the upcoming Olympics in Paris, he will no doubt have a similar effect.

And the Russian-born Brit has some wise words for those potential future stars who look at him and think, ‘I’d like to be the next ‘Delicious Orie’’ in the same way he himself looked at Joshua as an 18-year-old and felt a fire burn inside him that led him into the ring.

"The biggest thing is, you’re going to have a lot of obstacles come your way, there will be loads, and there will be ones that you think, ‘Oh no, there’s no way I’m going to be able to get through this one,” he said.

“I’ve had a few but if you just believe and keep persevering it’s so possible. And it takes time.

“And another thing is, the biggest advice I’d give is sometimes you just have to work for free for a while. You have to work and not expect anything for a long time.

“You’ve got to really enjoy it first in order to do that but one day it will just click, and you’ll get it all.”