Mickey Rourke will step back into the squared circle to breathe life back into his boxing career at the age of 62. Rourke will head to Moscow, Russia, to take on a United States professional boxer later this month, reports Yahoo News.
“Boxing is a serious part of my life. It taught me respect and determination, patience and concentration. I always dreamed of fighting a match in Russia,” Rourke said.
The actor/boxer will fight Elliot Seymour, 29, on November 28. The match will be held before Russia’s Rusian Provodnikov and Mexico’s Jose Luis face off, reports Business World .
Rourke boxed as an amateur before his acting career took off and he became a full-fledged sex symbol. From 1964 to 1973, Rourke had an amateur boxing record of 27 wins and 3 defeats. At one point, he had 12 straight first round knockouts.
Back in 2008, Rourke portrayed a washed up fighter making a last ditch comeback in The Wrestler . The role won him a Golden Globe for best actor.
Rourke made a return to boxing for eight matches in the 1990’s; the return caused damage to his face. While he did win 6 of the 8 of his professional fights, 4 of them by knockout, the fists of his opponents were in no way kind to him.
Rourke’s nose was broken several times, and his cheekbone fractured. To fix the damage done to his face, Rourke had plastic surgery. Because the scar tissue on his nose and cheekbone wasn’t healing properly, Rourke turned to a plastic surgeon.
After the work was done, Rourke admitted that he had gone to the ‘wrong guy’ for his reconstruction.
Surgeons had to take cartilage from Rourke’s ear to fix his nose, which was broken twice during his boxing career.
Between the injuries and his poor choice of a surgeon and the number of procedures he has undergone, Rourke’s appearance was dramatically changed.
Rourke has another reason aside from the boxing match to visit Russia. For the past four years he has been dating Russian model Anastassija Makarenko. Rourke has been quoted as calling her a “gift from heaven.”
Marenko played a Russian model in the Bruce Willis movie A Good Day To Die Hard . Many credit the blond beauty with taming Rourke, who had a reputation as a ladies’ man.
“ Obviously she’s a very beautiful woman. But she’s got the biggest heart, she’s got a great family… they’re great people. I wouldn’t trade her in for 20 Academy Awards,” Rourke said.
