Richard Riakporhe interview: Boxer on Madonna, modelling and how near-fatal stabbing changed his trajectory

Richard Riakporhe woke up in a hospital bed, aged 15, to be told he was lucky to be alive. Stabbed in the chest in a mobile phone robbery, the knife caught his artery and surgeons had to saw through his sternum to stem the internal bleeding.

A few miles from the south London estate where the stabbing took place, life has come full circle, as the 34-year-old Riakporhe prepares to fight Chris Billam-Smith at Selhurst Park.

Riakporhe has crammed a remarkable amount into the intervening years: boxer, Burberry model, sometime dining companion of Naomi Campbell, close friend of Madonna and head of an eponymous foundation to combat knife crime.

Pondering what his 15-year-old self would have said of his subsequent trajectory, he said: “I would have said, ‘What movie are you talking about?’ If someone had told me what’s happened, I would say, ‘What is this nonsense’.”

Growing up on the Aylesbury Estate, where “everyone was committing crimes to get by”, he got in with the wrong people, although the stabbing was more a mischance of circumstance than any bad decision-making.

His good fortune to survive — against the doctor’s expectations — completely flipped his life. He subsequently kept his head down and stayed out of trouble. “I made everything about progression, will this decision help me progress in life?” he explained.

Having left it too late to make his mark in his first love of football, aged 18 he turned to boxing, also relatively late to take up the sport.

Richard Riakporhe

Now, 17 fights into his professional career, including already beating ­Billam-Smith once before, his ultimate goal is to climb up to the heavyweight ranks and become world champion. With his achievements to date, it is not perhaps so fanciful.

The modelling came much later, talent-spotted while working out in a gym and, within a few days, signed up as a face of Burberry.

He fully understands his dual choice of careers are not ideal. “A lot of people say in the fashion world, ‘I can’t believe you box, don’t damage your face,” he said. “But it actually gives me more motivation to look after myself in the ring and not get hit!”

He has walked the catwalk for the likes of Burberry and Dior, and been in all manner of photoshoots. “It’s funny, because I didn’t know what I was doing when Burberry took me on,” he admitted.

“It’s become normal, but I only realise how crazy it all sounds when I actually talk about it. I’m the sort of person that loves a challenge — and this has been a relatively new challenge.”

He nonchalantly jumps from one brush with fame to another. Invited by his creative director at Burberry to dinner, he was sat next to supermodel Campbell on one side and Lee Jung-jae, the star of the Netflix series Squid Game, on the other. And, introduced by a photographer pal, his friendship with Madonna blossomed.

“I’ve met some pretty famous people,” he said, somewhat understatedly. “Madonna’s a very nice lady and said she wanted to come to the fight. She’s asked a few times about it and whether it would align with timings. Hopefully, we’ll see her there.”

With his foundation, he goes around the country’s schools warning children of the perils of carrying a knife. “I think it’s powerful coming from someone who’s been through this,” he said. “To show them that you don’t have to become a product of your environment. Telling them how long a sentence is just for carrying a knife is a good start.”

Having lived seemingly so many lives since surviving his own stabbing, what is next after boxing? “Maybe Hollywood star...” — and he’s not joking.