I was meant to be bigger than Anthony Joshua but doctors left me nearly blind – now I’m training boxing icon Butterbean

10 months ago 59

ANTHONY OGOGO has opened up on the heart-breaking eye injury that forced him to retire from boxing at the age of 30.

The ace, 35, was once tipped to be Britain’s next big boxer after coming through the Team GB ranks ahead of Anthony Joshua.

Anthony Ogogo was once tipped to be the biggest name in British boxing[/caption]

Ogogo started his career with a bronze medal at London 2012[/caption]

Ogogo set the stage for a successful career in the ring after winning the bronze medal at the London 2012 Olympic Games.

He won his first 11 fights, setting up a battle against Craig Cunningham for the vacant WBC International middleweight title in 2016.

But Ogogo suffered defeat to his fellow Brit and ended up fracturing his eye socket.

It would prove to be his last-ever boxing fight, as Ogogo struggled to get diagnosed correctly by doctors.

He almost ended up going blind after having nine surgeries and eventually called it a day in 2019.

But after reinventing himself as an actor, podcaster and wrestler, Ogogo is now enjoying boxing again after training with iconic fighter Butterbean.

Ogogo told talkSPORT: “(It was the) hardest time of my life. My press conference was way bigger than Joshua’s, way bigger than Luke Campbell’s. I was going to be the face of Golden Boy UK.

“I had everything it takes to get to the top of this world, and then my eye blew up. Those three years, from hurting my eye in 2016 to retiring in 2019 were the hardest three years of my life.

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“I wouldn’t wish it upon anybody. I had nine surgeries. During one of my surgeries, my heart stopped on the operating table. Now, my life is being played with and I still chose to have [five] more surgeries.”

One nearly going blind, Ogogo said: “The fracture I sustained wasn’t that bad. It was the misdiagnosis, the wrong surgery, the injection went vastly wrong. I must’ve done something really bad in a previous life to get the unfortunate circumstances I dealt with.

He won his first 11 pro fights but lost to Craig Cunningham in 2016[/caption]

An eye injury saw Ogogo almost go blind, and he needed nine surgeries before retiring in 2019[/caption]

“I saw Kell [Brook’s] doctor after I’d already had the wrong surgery. Dr. Muhammad Ali, believe it or not, and he said to me, ‘You need a time machine because once they did that your career was done’.

“The fracture I had was nowhere near as bad as Kell’s, in either of his eyes, but what they did messed everything up and I can never get that back.

“I lost my career, my passion, my vision in my left eye and any potential case to compensate me for this really bad journey I went on. It took a long time to shrug all that off.”

On his friendship with Butterbean, who is eyeing a boxing comeback, Ogogo added: “I know Bean really well, he’s such a nice guy.

“He was on death’s door. He was too big to get new hips. He lost loads of weight, got new hips and fast forward 18 months I’m doing six rounds on the pads with him.

“He can still bang! The boy can still bang, mate! My job with him is boxing work and also mind-set stuff, health stuff.

“You know, he’s a great example, he’s been down, and he got back up and now he wants one more fight.

“He wants to end his story with one more fight and I’ll be in his corner on fight night because I like him, care for him, trust him, have trained him and I want to be there to protect him.”