I was an Olympian destined for superstardom like Anthony Joshua but bad doctor ruined my career – now I'm training Butterbean for comeback fight

14/02/2024 16:32

Anthony Ogogo has been on an epic journey since his boxing career came to a desperately sad end five years ago.

The 35-year-old was hoping to become the next big thing in the professional ranks after winning a bronze medal at the 2012 London Olympics.

Ogogo dreamed of being knighted and winning BBC's Sports Personality of the Year during a career that would end with him as the consensus best British middleweight of all time.

However, his 12-1 career was plagued by injuries, and he ultimately walked away from boxing in 2019 after spending three years trying to recover from an eye issue.

Since then, Ogogo has watched from the sidelines as his 'little brother' from Team GB, Anthony Joshua, has gone on to become a two-time world champion and earn tens of millions in the process.

The Suffolk native spent a long time feeling like it should've been him after promising to become one of the greatest legends in boxing history during his memorable first press conference as a professional.

"Hardest time of my life," Ogogo told talkSPORT.com about the end of his promising career.

"My press conference was way bigger than Joshua's, way bigger than Luke Campbell's. It was all singing and dancing, and we were about to sign a [TV] deal… 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.

“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."

The hardest thing for Ogogo to accept was the fact that his injury wasn't that bad, and it was the doctors he trusted who ruined his career and left him 78 per cent blind in one eye.

He added: “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.

“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."

Today, Ogogo is a successful actor, podcaster, and wrestler, who is hoping to perform at Wembley Stadium when AEW puts on a massive show this summer.

The Englishman is also putting his boxing skills to good use, as he's currently training with ring icon Butterbean, who is contemplating a comeback fight at 57 years old.

Butterbean – real name Eric Esch – feared death was near after his weight ballooned to 36 stone and he was unable to get out of bed due to his sheer size.

Over the past couple of years, he's lost 15 stone after signing up for a reality TV docuseries that followed him and five other people as they were coached by former professional wrestler Diamond Dallas Page.

Ogogo became friends with Butterbean through 'DDP' and he has been holding pads for the heavyweight knockout artist before he ends his unique sporting story with one final fight.

“I know Bean really well, he's such a nice guy," he said.

"Diamond showed me his transformation. They've been filming him for two years. They showed me him walking out of a car with two crutches and a wheelchair – 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 mindset 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."

Butterbean couldn’t have picked a better man to protect him in his final fight, as Ogogo knows just how devastatingly damaging the sport can be.

Thankfully, he’s found new passions five years on from his premature retirement.