Mickey Rourke, famously a former professional boxer with ties to Freddie Roach and the Wild Card Gym, is making a return to the ring after last competing 20 years ago. According to multiple reports, Rourke, now 62, is fighting this weekend in Moscow, as part of the event showcasing Ruslan Provodnikov against Jose Luis Castillo.
If fight fans thought that Provodnikov vs. Castillo was interesting due to Castillo’s advanced ring age, then what exactly should we think of Rourke competing as a professional fighter at 62 years old? It’s no coincidence that he’s pursuing this course of action in Russia, as it’s exceedingly doubtful he would have been able to get a license to fight in the United States.
It’s not as though Rourke is facing a fantastic fighter though. He’s taking on the 1-9 Elliot Seymour, who’s riding an 8-fight losing streak. Nevertheless, Seymour is 29 years old, less than half the age of Rourke.
As a professional fighter, Rourke had a 6-0-2 record, with 4 knockouts, before ending his ring campaign in 1994. He was no spring chicken then, either. Keep in mind that 20 years ago, Rourke was still 42 years old, impossibly old for anyone not named Bernard Hopkins or George Foreman.
He didn’t exactly have title aspirations during his stint in the ring though. He fought three winless fighters, three other fighters with awful records, and only one fighter with a winning record, with that fight producing one of his two draws. He also never fought more than a 4 Round fight, although this fight is apparently scheduled for 5 Rounds, another odd twist.
Let’s just hope that nobody gets hurt in there.
