Mickey Rourke's opponent reportedly a homeless man with mental-health issues
The story of 62-year-old actor Mickey Rourke's exhibition boxing victory in Russia has taken a sad and bizarre turn as a report by the Daily Mail claims that the actor's 29-year-old opponent is actually a homeless man battling mental health issues, according to an unnamed family source.
"It was clearly a fixed fight," the Mail source said of Rourke's second-round TKO over Elliot Seymour. "The whole bouncing off the ropes, hands down, punches were not landing and they were intentionally hitting each other’s gloves. There’s so much more to the situation than people know, and there’s so much that’s more important than the fact it was fixed, which is the fact he doesn’t have a home and he’s got some mental health issues."
Here's full video of the match:
Meanwhile Seymour has spent the better part of the past 18 months living on the streets in Pasadena, Calif., floating in and out of a Starbucks.
"I'm very happy to be back to the boxing ring," Rourke said prior to the fight. "Thank God for letting me do this."
It's unclear what, if anything, Rourke himself knew about Seymour's circumstances, or whether Seymour had unequivocally agreed (or was urged) to take a dive. Rourke did fight in the amateur and professional ranks before and during his acting career and tallied a 6-0-2 mark professionally, his last match occuring in September 1994, so he does know his way around the ring.
It's just all very strange, like something out of a movie -- one part "Rocky," one part "The Great White Hype" and one part "Bumfights."
