by Rachel Ogbu

British-Nigerian middleweight boxer, Anthony Ogogo is making plans to stage a comeback to boxing this October. Hoping of becoming a world champion, the 28-year-old English professional boxer has been recovering from a fractured left eye socket in his first career defeat to Craig Cunningham.

“I am looking to get back in October,” Anthony Ogogo told Sky Sports News HQ at WWE SmackDown Live! “I’ve had two operations on it, it was quite a bad one. I had an injection in it last night and it was gruesome. I am working hard in the gym every single day, I am still fit, I am still strong and as soon as my eye is fixed, I am getting back into the ring. I want to set the world alight and become a world champion.”

Boxing since he was 12-years-old, Ogogo won a gold medal in the 2004 Junior Olympics final held in Texas. He went on to win a silver medal in the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India in the Middleweight (75 kg) Division and a bronze medal in the  2012 Olympic. He has a record of 11 wins and one defeat.

“I want that hard living. I want to go back to Cunningham’s backyard and bash him up in front of his own fans – the same ones that were booing me and calling me names,” he tells The Sun of his comeback.“Whether you like me or loathe me, you’ve got to respect me and what I’ve been through. I know I can get to the top.”

Earlier in his career, Ogogo faced a lot of traumatic injuries yet he remained undefeated. He had a severe shoulder dislocated and also an Achilles problem followed by the stress after his mother suffered a brain haemorrhage on the eve of London 2012.

“My character has definitely developed from that, mentally I am way stronger and more robust because of what I went through,” he says.

“If, as an amateur, I didn’t go through those hardships, maybe when I had the Achilles and shoulder problems as a pro I would have thought ‘it won’t happen for me’. I didn’t because what I have been through. It hardened me up. I know when I face anyone across the ring they are not going to be as determined as me, or mentally as strong as me. You never wish bad fortune on yourself but because of it I’m much better.”