Orie Quits Boxing One Fight Into Pro Career
Get the Sports newsletter
Daily sports — scores, transfers, the storylines from the leagues you actually follow. Free.
- Delicious Orie retired from professional boxing in May 2025, roughly one month after his pro debut, walking away from a career that had triggered a bidding war won by Frank Warren's Queensberry over Eddie Hearn's Matchroom and the WWE.
- Orie said fear of declining mental health drove the decision, telling BBC Sport: "I fear that I would have ended up being a world champion but a very depressed, sad and miserable world champion."
- Orie turned pro after failing to win a medal at the Paris Olympics, and his debut win over Milos Veletic was widely seen as underwhelming — he failed to deliver the expected knockout and questioned his own motivation during sparring.
- Orie said the millions he earned in boxing only deepened his emptiness, stating "money gives you zero fulfilment" and warning that pushing on would have meant "seeking validation from others externally" rather than inner fulfillment.
- Orie made the retirement decision without telling family or close friends — a move he now calls a mistake — and is now working as a financial advisor while advocating mental health education for young men.
- Orie, originally from Russia, a Team GB heavyweight, and a latecomer to boxing at 18, cited Tyson Fury's mental health struggles as the cautionary example of what he wanted to avoid before the sport "exposed" him.
Why it matters: Orie walked away from a career that had attracted competing bids from Frank Warren's Queensberry, Eddie Hearn's Matchroom, and the WWE, explicitly citing Tyson Fury's mental health arc as the cautionary example he wanted to avoid. His public framing of fulfillment over purse money gives boxing promoters a rare voluntary defection from a touted heavyweight at the very start of his earning window.
Ask SkimNews
