The Belgian Beast

Fighter profile of Divock Origi by Bjorn O'Donnel

My management team has always adviced me to stay under the spotlight and try not to shine bright in it. So far, I have been not so vocal and only wished my opponents good luck in the past and that was it. Well, times are changing. When I was a kid, I played soccer outside, but nowadays, kids seem to be attracted by some sort of electric piece of fruit. I heard that you can even take picture with it from yourself, so sort of like a camera, but then a piece of fruit.

Technology really seems to have improved leaps and bounds if they can do stuff like that now. Aah well, derailing a bit now I guess.
I'm going to try and give you guys a good idea of how I grew up and what it took for me to get at the point in my career that I'm at now. Some stuff of my past might be pretty hard and not so much fun, but it comes from the heart.

As some of you might know, Belgium isn't exactly Ibiza, so when my parents were fed up with all the bad weather, they went on holiday to England. Yeah, I know, that's the place to be for good weather right...!?! I could tell you now that they got lucky and that the sun was shining, but no, they weren't. After having visited pretty much every museum and ancient building in Liverpool, my dad felt his third leg sending him messages. Little Jan as he cold it, was standing at full attention and was ready to go. It was already dark outside and they were only 3 minutes away from the famous Anfield stadium. They ran to the stadium, jumped over the fence and did their business in the middle of the field.

Yes, that was 6 months before mom gave birth to me. Yes, 6 months, not 9. Doctors don't know if it was the cold weather or something else , but after 6 months in my mothers belly swimming in some awfull fluids, I decided that it was time to come out. Unluckily for my mom, I was one hell of big kid, and no matter how much she pushed, no way of getting my big head out of her. They had to cut her open like they slaughter a cow to get me out. The specialists said that it was a miracle that I came out alive. I was the first baby ever that came to earth with a sixpack.

Yeah, my father had brought a sixpack with him to make sure that he wouldn't faint during labour.

The first couple of years were pretty harsh on me as I had to have multiple doctor appointments to try and figure out how I was so big and strong for my age. Many suggested to give me operations, but my parents refused that since I was otherwise healthy.

One time, the unthinkable happened. I was in hospital once again when some Russian specialist was going to take a look at me to get a better idea of what happened to me and how it could be solved. He told my parents that he would bring me back to my hospital room in 3 hours. Oh boy, that he didn't do! He gave me some sort of drug that made me fall asleep and then ran off with me and put me in his car. He tried to bring to Germany where he had a secret lab to do tests on humans. I don't know what exactly happened there, but all I know is that when I woke up, I was painted green and a SWAT-team had just entered the building.

My parents later told me that the Russian was a crazy scientist who was trying to get a real-life hulk. That were some scary and crazy days in my life, but luckily the guy is still behind bars and locked up in a maximum security prison in Alaska.

Studying never really was my strongest point , so I knew that focussing on sports would help me get possible scholarship and get me to university. The crazy thing was, I turned out that I was actuallly a pretty smart guy, but just wasn't good at learning.

My teachers got me motivated to do my best around age 15. I was getting better and better at school, but was also getting in trouble often. My athletic build made me a scary guy and I did some bad stuff when I was young. Some say I invented the terms 'Wedgie' and 'Upper decker'. My legal advisor told me to never say that I was responsable for that, but fuck him!

Anyway, as I grew older, I kept getting bigger and bigger and also had some aggression issues. At age 18, I started wrestling and also did some boxing training. I had so much fun doing these two sports that I haven't stopped training yet ever since. I'm pretty much non-stop in the gym and couldn't ask for any other lifestyle. I train, eat, sleep, fuck and repeat. Yeah, I like sex in the morning, with a nice cup of coffee after it.

Pretty quickly , lets say after 1 week of training or so, my coach said that I had a fight booked. I was a bit afraid as I had no clue what to expect. I fought a 7 year older dude that I was able to pretty much clinchrape towards a 30-27 decision win. I wasn't too happy with it as I want to finish fights and not go to these stupid judges.

I had 3 more fights like that , 2 being finishes, but I wasn't sure if I was doing things right. My management contacted me that they needed someone to step up and become a last minute replacement for fights that weren't accepted a week or so before the fight.

I signed a cheap contract and had 4 fights there, 3 being finishes. It was a good experience, but that was about it. As soon as my contract was over, I got some interesting offers, but I decided to join USFC and fight cheap over there, since I liked the org owner. Because of the big reputation that I had built up, I was awarded a title shot directly.

What followed was one of the most brutal showings ever in an octagon and sort of put the former champ to shame. It took me only 21 seconds to smash his skull in and get my hand raised. I was proud as hell , being world champion at the age of 20!

My first title defense was against a high rated prospect from a top manager. 4'29 was the time he was able to stand in the octagon with me before falling to the canvas as well. It was a onemanshow once again and the loss was so brutal that he even changed his name after it in pure shame of the asskicking he received by me. The last fight on my contract was coming up and it was against another undefeated prospect with brutal KO-power.

The same story once again occured as I brutalised my opponent in the first round (2'48') and got my hand raised once more. After the big win, I went to drink something with the org owner and can't really say that I'm 100% sure what happened. My trainer said that I apparentely got a bit too familiar with his sister and that he wasn't too happy with that. To be honest, she was more than worth it, that I do still know! After I stripped her of he clothes, he stripped me of my belt. I might have punched him after that, but all I know is I had the time of my life with that girl and he can't take that away from me.

I started at 18 years old with MMA and altough I made good progress, I'm not the fastest one either. I used some extra training before thinking about a new fight. A few weeks ago , I called the press together and announced that I was looking to sign a contract. My manager is a busy man, but he has never had that many messages in his life as in that moment. The offers came fluying in and it was at one point hard to keep track of who was offering what.

I was bored to death with the bad weather in Belgium and NY and decided that I wanted to sign to an org located in a sunny place. Sydney seemed like a fun place and since AXF made an offer, I accepted that one. Hey, it's not because I'm black that I don't like being in the sun as well getting tanned!

I have switched camps and I've started to train in another way. I'm way more efficient now and it's fun to become a better martial artist. I also have some more good news on a more pesonal base. Nathalie Kelley is my new girlfriend and let me tell you, she is hot!!! You might know her from The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift. Yeah, she is that hottie! I know, I've got nothing to complain about.

A fight has been booked as well for me. It's a tough challenge and it will be very interesting to see how I cope against an older KO-machine, who is also way bigger and heavier than me. There are about two more weeks to go before fight night and I'm training hard to get to my best level. I'm always improving and working steadily to achieve my ultimate goal, being the best in the world.

There are a few interesting guys out there in the division that are eager to fight me. I know that, and trust me, your time will come guys.

I can conclude by saying that I'm one of the most hardworking guys out there and I'm looking to become a great martial artist. In my opinion, a fighter isn't just a sportman , but he is also an ambassador, role model ,... and should always lead by example. I'm going to do my utmost best to become that person.

Now excuse me , Nathalie is calling me for some pre-workout stretching, if you catch my drift ...

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