It was a pretty terrible day to be a casual fan of boxing/MMA, or life in general really, if I do say so myself. “Why?” you ask. Because everything we thought to be real in the world turned out to be absolute farce.
Let’s start with Mickey Rourke. In case you hadn’t heard recently, the 62-year-old actor and former boxer decided earlier this year to take a stab at rejuvenating his in-ring career by accepting a fight against some opponent half his age. The bout was held in Russia earlier this month, and Rourke remarkably didn’t just come out of the fight alive, but he managed to KO the kid in the second round—or so he would’ve had us all believe.
Photo: Mickey Rourke holding a press conference about his return to boxing in Moscow on Nov. 25, 2014
Turns out his opponent, Elliot Seymour, a 29-year-old homeless man (albeit one that did have a 1-9 boxing record over the past several years), was paid off by Rourke’s people to throw the fight. After initially denying the claims that were made by an anonymous source close to him, in the Daily Mail, Seymour came clean to TMZ. He did, however, defend Rourke, saying that the boxer/actor/old dude had no clue the fix was in and that it was all the idea of his (Rourke’s) people who were just trying to boost the dude’s confidence a little bit. Apparently part of the payment that he was owed is delayed (he says he agreed to accept $15k to go down in the second), and the weight of the matter had been weighing on him in the days since the fight, which is why Seymour decided to speak out. Rourke’s people, of course, continue to deny those claims.
On to former WWE’er CM Punk, who is currently training for his first bout since signing on with Dana White and UFC. Every since making that jump from “professional wrestling” to the octagon, there has been massive amounts of speculation as to who would be Punk’s, a.k.a. Phillip Brooks’, first official opponent. Many names, both high profile and far-lesser known, have been thrown out there, but the UFC did say that Punk’s first bout would come against an opponent of an equal skill level, which led to rumors that Jason David Frank—better known as Tommy the Green Power Ranger—could be that person.
Well, when asked about those rumors by a TMZ paparazzo, Brooks laughed them off. Sad face… Now, the one thing that does need to be said about how Brooks reacted is this: He openly admitted that he’s given every single reporter who’s asked him about his first fight false information, be it about the time, the opponent, etc. Grabbing at strings here, but any hopes about two of the best fake fighters of all time squaring off in a real “fight” seem to be nothing more than a mirage now
So, yeah. This was a pretty terrible day for grappling and boxing news. Good luck sleeping easy tonight, if you’re able to sleep at all…