I just love anything about Mickey. I am so glad he managed to convince his coach that he wanted to box 🙂

Mickey Rourke‘s boxing career almost ended before it started – because his trainer insisted he wasn’t committed or disciplined enough to be a great fighter.

Top coach Freddie Roach, who is currently training Manny Pacquiao for his upcoming fight with Brit Ricky Hatton, refused to work with Rourke when the actor first approached him in 1990 – because The Wrestler star only turned up for training once in seven days.

Roach says, “I came out to Hollywood. I was here for seven days (and) he showed up in the gym one day in seven…. I ripped him so bad he actually cried.”

The actor remembers the harsh lesson he learned that day: “Freddie came into the gym one days and he goes, ‘Listen, I don’t train people to lose fights; you’re not running, you’re not doing this, you’re not doing that. I’m going back to Las Vegas.’

“I was making all kinds of excuses because my head was crazy… I was in tears. Freddie packed his bags and went back to Las Vegas.

“Freddie humiliated me, embarrassed me and reduced me to the fact that I was not giving 100 per cent, I was not being a professional and I was setting myself up to not be as good as I could be.”

But Rourke refused to give up – and kept begging his trainer to reconsider.

Roach recalls, “He called me every day for 30 days and then finally I said to him, ‘Ok, if I come back, the next day you have off is the one I give you.’

“I think he had discipline in his life for the first time ever.”

Rourke quit acting and trained to become a professional boxer. Roach coached him for seven of eight fights before Rourke retired from the ring unbeaten. He won half his fights by knock-outs.