Report: Rourke’s opponent was living homeless, paid to take a dive in the 4th

For those living way outside the combat sports bubble over this last holiday weekend, Mickey Rourke fought an exhibition boxing match in Russia. The 62 year old returned to the ring for the first time since the 90’s in a continuation of his on-again-off-again ring career. This being an exhibition match, it wasn’t about to go on anybody’s record, neither Rourke’s 6-0-2, or his opponent, Elliot Seymour’s 1-9. Which, of course, sets the stage perfectly for a farcical fight in which more injuries were faked than blows landed. You can see the entire fight below:

And if the visual wasn’t enough to convince you that the fix was on, the Daily Mail is now reporting that prior to the match, Elliot Seymour was “pretty much living on the streets.” And that Elliot had often trained at the same gym as Rourke in the past, and was flown in especially to lose this fight. Given the results, that story sounds increasingly credible.

A source reportedly close to Seymour spoke to the Daily Mail:

‘There are people at Wild Card gym who know that Elliot’s in a really terrible situation and pretty much living on the streets, these are Mickey Rourke’s people who Elliot’s been around and known for some time.

‘I’d be surprised if they didn’t know something about his situation but they have decided to put him in the ring against Mickey Rourke.
…
‘All these headlines Mickey Rourke beat someone half his age… yeah he did but you’re not telling them the real story, the real story is he’s homeless and desperate and he will probably go back to living on the streets when he gets back. People have no clue about that.

‘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.
…
‘They told him to throw the fight I hope he gets home safely and paid.

‘They wanted him down in the 4th.’

The Daily Mail also reportedly spoke to Seymour’s estranged mother, who was unable to speak specifically to the bout, but said that she didn’t believe the fight was fixed. All in all, it’s a pretty ugly situation. Hopefully, if nothing else can come of it, Seymour at least got paid some decent money for taking the bout.