AEW star and former Olympian Anthony Ogogo recently spoke with the Independent UK about having to retire from boxing in 2019, a moment Ogogo admits spiraled him down a dark path, one that even had him thinking suicidal thoughts. Highlights from Ogogo’s tale can be found below.
On retiring from boxing in 2019 and how unhappy he was since he felt that he was in his prime:
I retired on March 11, 2019 I remember it like the back of my hand, my last fight was basically three years before – October 2016 – and there was no conceivable way that I was thinking I’ve walked to the ring as a 27-year-old, as a baby, entering my prime, for the last time. I spent £100,000 on surgeries in America, that was everything I earned in boxing, and much more beside. I sold my car, remortgaged my house to pay for surgery that didn’t work. Then I had an injection in my eye, it was a Botox injection to weaken the muscle to try to bring the eye to a better position – it missed the intended muscle and permanently paralyzed the nerve in my left eye.
Recalls a particular night where he felt suicidal, and how thankful he is for his wife:
I gave my life to boxing and I had nothing to show for it other than bad vision; no money, no belts and no titles. I lost my career, I lost my passion, lost my livelihood and I’ve had to sit and watch people who have half of my ability grow and become world champions and multimillionaires. No exaggeration. I was generally suicidal and there’s one night in my life, it was December 2019, if my wife wasn’t home that day, I probably would have ended my life that night because I was beyond the brink but thankfully my wife and I were able to address my life. She literally saved my life – that was my ground zero and I’ve built up from that.