Anthony Osejua Ojo Ogogo (born 24 November 1988) is an English professional wrestler and former professional boxer signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW). As a boxer, he competed from 2013 to 2016 as a professional, and won a bronze medal in the middleweight division at the 2012 Olympics as an amateur. In 2015, Ogogo participated in the 13th series of Strictly Come Dancing.
Early life
Ogogo was born to an English mother and Nigerian father.
In his youth he attended many Football in the Community courses run by Norwich City, resulting in him being invited for a trial at the club and playing in their youth team.
Amateur boxing career
2004 Junior Olympics
Having taken up boxing aged 12, Ogogo won a gold medal in the 2004 Junior Olympics final held in Texas.
2005 IABA Cadet World championships
In 2005, Ogogo won gold at the IABA Cadet World Championships at the 70 kg division by beating Ruslan Derbenev of Russia in the final. A 1,000-plus capacity crowd watched the bout at the St George's Hall in Liverpool.
2010 Commonwealth Games
Ogogo competed in the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India in the Middleweight (75 kg) Division and won a silver medal after being defeated in the final by Northern Ireland's Eamonn O'Kane by a score of 16–4.
2012 Olympic Games
Ogogo secured his place on the GB Boxing team for the 2012 London Olympics in Trabzon, Turkey in April 2012. Ogogo was the first of the British boxers to make their Olympic debut, on 28 July, opening with a round of 32 bout against Junior Castillo of Dominican Republic, who he beat by a score of 13–6. In his round of 16 bout, Ogogo entered the biggest fight, against world champion and world number one, Ukrainian, Evhen Khytrov. With the judges score drawn, and the 52–52 count-back score not separating the fighters, the decision went down to the judges to press either the blue or red pad based on their opinion as to who deserved the decision. The majority of the five officials chose Ogogo. One fight from a bronze medal, Ogogo fought Germany's Stefan Härtel in the quarter-finals. Ogogo continued his successful form with a 15–10 victory. He went on to box Brazilian Esquiva Falcão Florentino in the semi-final but his opponent proved to be too strong for him. Ogogo lost the bout 16:9, claiming a bronze medal. A post box in his home town of Lowestoft (on Rectory Road) was painted bronze in honour of this result, but has since been re-painted red.
Professional boxing career
Early fights and injury
In December 2012, Ogogo signed his first professional contract, with Los Angeles-based promotional company Golden Boy Promotions.
He won his first professional bout against Kieron Gray, stopping him in the second round.
After 7 professional fights, Ogogo was out for a year after requiring surgery for an Achilles tendon injury.
Return and International middleweight title fight
During his comeback fight against Ruslan Schelev in July 2015 he dislocated his shoulder in the second round, but continued until the end of the six rounds to take a unanimous decision. On 29 May 2016 Ogogo needed less than three rounds to win his comeback from injury. After a one-sided two-and-a-half rounds, Gary Cooper's corner threw in the towel to award Ogogo a successful return from a 10-month absence. Cooper who was an 11th-hour replacement for Germany's Chris Herrmann in Glasgow on the undercard of Ricky Burns’ Super WBA super-lightweight title fight.
It was announced on 10 June that Ogogo would fight for the first time at the O2 Arena on the undercard of Anthony Joshua vs. Dominic Breazeale on 25 June. This would be part of a stacked card including George Groves, Martin Murray, Chris Eubank Jr, Conor Benn and Dillian Whyte. Ogogo defeated Frane Radnic (11-2, 10 KOs), after knocking Radnic down from a left in the 1st round. Radnic did not return for round 2. Ogogo fought for the third time in just seven weeks against experienced 37 year old Bronislav Kubin (19-20-2, 12 KOs) in Berlin on the undercard of a super-middleweight world title fight. Ogogo won the fight via 2nd-round TKO. Kubin was knocked down twice in round one and four times in round 2 as the referee waved the fight off.