At 62 years of age, Mickey Rourke still packs a punch… or not

With advances in training and nutrition (and drugs), it’s becoming more and more commonplace for athletes to perform at a high level into their forties and beyond. Mickey Rourke, at sixty-two, recently stepped back into the ring for an exhibition bout against Elliot Seymour — a “boxer” two years shy of being half Rourke’s age.

While Seymour continues to insist in the media that he wasn’t paid to take a dive, his ring credentials are suspect at best. Nevertheless, Rourke can be credited with whipping himself into shape for what the bout’s promoter later admitted was more PR stunt, then an actual fight.

62-year-old Mickey Rourke returns to boxing and beats 29-year-old opponent: http://t.co/lAtlhyNZdA pic.twitter.com/KWBMAK7snr

— Mashable (@mashable) November 29, 2014

Most are familiar with Mickey Rourke the actor who suavely swaggered his way through classics like Rumble Fish, Body Heat, Angel Heart and The Pope of Greenwich Village.

Less known is Rourke’s success in the boxing ring, where from 1964 to 1973 he compiled a 27-3 record as an amateur, and then went 6-0-2 as a professional starting in 1991. After he won a a Golden Globe for his role in The Wrestler, a bulked-up Rourke also put in a brief stint in the squared circle with WWE.