CO-OP LIVE ARENA, MANCHESTER -- Delicious Orie's sheer presence lingered over the ring and you could hear a groan as the two men stood centre ring, his 3-7 opponent Milos Veletic looking to defend and in damage limitation mode early as the Paris Olympian flicked out his jab, then winged dangerous shots at his chest.
This was the featured attraction on the televised portion of Queensberry's DAZN streaming debut, headlined by Joe Joyce vs. Filip Hrgovic.
Velectic, some 48 pounds heavier and listed as four inches shorter, wasn't moving much laterally so resembled little more than a standing target for the 27-year-old to pepper. Frazer Clarke was among the interested observers ringside and as time wore on, the decorated amateur mixed in a few body shots while clearly headhunting.
An overhand right stumbled the Bosnian backwards and while his hands were up, the speed of intermittent attacks coming back meant he would've been thankful this was only a four-round assignment.
In fairness, Velectic landed a few shrewd counters and stifled the debutant's work in the third, before you could see Orie's head coach Grant Smith in an animated discussion with his charge before the finale.
Go for it he did, but they heard the final bell and really shouldn't have on a night where they really needed a Moses Itauma-esque statement victory to get the social media channels whirring. Instead, many were noticed how tense he was and were playing spot-the-star in the crowd, like IBF world champion Daniel Dubois.
Main card results
Heavyweight: Delicious Orie UD4 (40-36) Milos Veletic
Junior-welterweight: Khaleel Majid UD10 (97-94, 96-94, 96-95) Alex Murphy
Undercard
Super-featherweight: Royston Barney-Smith UD8 (80-72) Cesar Ignacio Paredes
Junior-welter: Mark Chamberlain UD8 (80-72) Miguel Angel Scaringi
Featherweight: Nelson Birchall KO1 (1:31) Rodrigo Matias Areco
Super-middleweight: Ramtin Musah UD4 (40-36) Robbie Chapman
Super-bantamweight: Louis Szeto UD4 (38-37) Nabil Ahmed
Featherweight: Alfie Middlemiss UD4 (40-37) Alexander Morales