Yes indeed. Besides being one of the best actors of his day, I read the other day that The Pope of Greenwhich Village himself was a pretty good boxer. It said his record was 20-4 with 17 KOs. I wonder if one can find any footage of his fights. Would love to see that shit.
btw, the pope of greenwich village is AWESOME
mickey regularly trains at the legendary Gleason's gym in Brooklyn
Johnny in the know. Yeah, TPOGV is a great underappreciated movie for sure. That's intresting because I read that during his fighting days, he trained at City Boxing Gym in Miami Beach.
20-6 was AMATEUR. He had 7 pro fights.
Rourke took up self-defense training at the Boys Club of Miami. It was there he learned boxing skills, and decided on an amateur career. At the age of 12, Rourke won his first boxing match as a 118-pound bantamweight. Some of his early matches were fought as Andre Rourke. He continued his boxing training at the famed 5th Street Gym on Miami Beach, Florida; joining the Police Athletic League boxing program. In 1969, Rourke, now weighing 140lbs., sparred with former World Welterweight Champion Luis Rodriguez. Rodriguez was the number one rated middleweight boxer in the world, and was training for his match with world champion Nino Benvenuti. Rourke claims to have received a concussion in this sparring match. In 1971, at the Florida Golden Gloves, he received another concussion from a boxing match. He was told by doctors to take a year off and rest, but Rourke decided to retire from the ring. From 1968 to 1972, Mickey Rourke compiled an amateur boxing record of 20-6, with 17 knockouts. He was disqualified 4 times, and lost 2 decisions. At one point, he reportedly scored 12 consecutive first round knockouts. As an amateur, Rourke had been friendly with pro-boxer Tommy Torino. When Rourke decided to return to boxing as a professional, Torino promoted some of Rourke's fights. Rourke was trained by former pro-boxer Freddie Roach at Miami Beach's 5th Street Gym and the Outlaw Boxing Club Gym in Los Angeles. Rourke made $250 for his pro debut, but by the end of his 2nd year of boxing, he earned a million dollars. Rourke appeared on the cover of World Boxing Magazine in June 1994. He sparred with world champions James Toney, John David Jackson, and Tommy Morrison. Rourke wanted to have 16 professional fights and then fight for a world title. However, he retired after 7 bouts and never got his desired title fight. His boxing career resulted in severe facial injuries which required a number of operations to repair his damaged face.
I read that he claimed his face got caved in from boxing and that the surgeon botched the job.
Or maybe he just went overboard on some cosmetic work?
Well that explains allot. Some lucky bastards get to make great movies (all his 80's flicks) and then train with the best. He may look fucked up now, but that guy has lived a charmed life for sure. Nobody can hang with that guy on screen (even today) which says allot about how much talent this guy was blessed with.
mickey should be put in jail for what he did to himself via plastic surgery
Yeah...I don't get that one either. As if he was so fugly to begin with. LOL
"Nobody can hang with that guy on screen (even today)"
That is a joke.
Year of the Dragon, POGV, 9 1/2 weeks, Angel Heart, Barfly, Diner.....How much is enough Mickey!!! Nah..I think I'll just fuck myself all up with some bad plastic surgery. Such a shame indeed.
A joke? Name another actor (ex. the obvious Al & Robert) that has a list of movies even close to being that good?
"Nobody can hang with that guy on screen (even today)"
His list of work aside (that one van damme movie), there are tons of actors right now that could more than hang with him on screen.
with all due respect to al pacino and robert deniro but they have become overrated due to the fact that they are the most nutthugged actors EVA
Yeah...well that's Hollywood for you. That's why I mentioned all his (80's flicks). It'll never happen because he's old news. Well I along with many others thought he was the best part of Sin City. I think it says allot about his talent that the guy can take ten years off and come back and be a player in the Hollywood machine. (And not get a Pulp Fiction to do it with either)
Johnny ...I couldn't agree more. In fact, I read they wanted them to originally play Charlie and Paulie in POGV but neither wanted to play Paulie so they went with Rourke and Roberts. Thank goodness for that cause we both know what happened there.
Rourke has ridiculous charisma with the most potent combo of toughness / vulnerability since Dean IMO.
I'm as bewildered as anyone by the surgery if indeed it was merely cosmetic and not necessary. Hollywood will fuck anyone's head up though.
He's made some legit great movies, and lots of B-movies that were at least watchable because he was in them. The ten years spent off the radar were his fault though, as people stopped returning his calls after he started assuming his shit didn't stink.
Nobody beats his prime though IMO. Sin City was perfect.
I saw a couple of his bouts a while back, they were so-so. He fought mostly bums and did okay. I think he realized a little too late that he wasn't a contender.
He was also brilliant in "Spun" as a meth dealer. Totally nailed the white trash aspect of the character.
Spun was definitely shit. Just another train wreck of a movie that Mickey saved from being completely worthless.
ttt