Delicious Orie Opens Up on Shock Retirement and Inspiring Young Boxers

Delicious Orie's professional boxing career lasted one fight. Four rounds in Manchester, a points victory over Milos Veletic on April 5, 2025, and that was it: a 1-0 record, a retirement statement posted to Instagram less than two months later, and a pivot toward the corporate world that his promoter, his peers, and his own long-stated values all, ultimately, made sense of.

"Over time, I've come to recognise that the same fire and love I once had for boxing has gradually faded," the 27-year-old wrote when he announced his retirement on May 27. "I hoped that turning professional would reignite the passion, but the truth has become clear: it hasn't. Every fighter knows you need a deep love for the craft to reach the top, and without it, there's no path forward."

For the Moscow-born, Wolverhampton-raised heavyweight, the loss of passion was no sudden development. Orie had been struggling for motivation even before the Paris 2024 Olympics, where he lost a controversial 3-2 split decision to Armenia's Davit Chaloyan in the first round despite being considered among the tournament favourites. That defeat closed out an amateur career of genuine distinction: gold at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, gold at the 2023 European Games in Krakow, training stints alongside Anthony Joshua and Frazer Clarke at Sheffield's Steel City Gym, and a turned-down approach from WWE. He signed with Frank Warren's Queensberry Promotions in February 2025, debuted in April, won, then walked away.

"I respect his judgement," Warren said after the announcement. "Boxing is the toughest of sports. If your heart's not in it or you've changed your mind, then he's done the right thing."

Orie had long been vocal about his responsibility to younger boxers, particularly those from ethnic minority communities. While coaching and mentoring at South Wye Boxing Club, he told England Boxing: "I feel it is very, very important. It makes me feel proud inside as people are appreciating ethnic minority backgrounds." He had also fronted an NHS Healthy Minds suicide prevention campaign, appearing in a short film aimed at men of all ages to reduce the stigma around mental health. "Life is hard," he said in that campaign. "There's no weakness or shame in asking for support."

That message carries over directly into how he talks about his retirement, framing honesty with oneself not as weakness but as a precondition for doing anything well. The structural support available to fighters wrestling with those same questions remains limited in British boxing. England Boxing's Box In Mind programme, backed by GB boxer Jordan Reynolds, who has spoken openly about his own mental health struggles, offers some access to resources, but pastoral care for young fighters rarely extends beyond the gym. For many, the identity built around performance has no formal safety net once competition stops.

Orie, who graduated from Aston University in 2020 with a first-class honours degree in Economics and Management, is better positioned than most. He arrived in England at seven years old, unable to speak the language, settled eventually in Wolverhampton, and built his path through school, university and the amateur ranks on discipline alone. Retiring with that same self-knowledge intact, he steps away from professional boxing with a clear sense of what comes next: a career in finance, and a platform he intends to use to show young fighters that the measure of an athlete is never just a record.