Controversial CBB star Mickey Rourke, 72, fought TEN years ago against opponent over half his age – but was rival paid to LOSE the fight?

Micky Rourke has embroiled himself in controversy since entering the Big Brother house on Monday evening. 

Rourke, 72, was given a formal warning for using ‘offensive and unacceptable’ language towards fellow contestant JoJo Siwa on the show.

He later apologised after being accused by Siwa of ‘homophobic’ behaviour having made the remark that he was ‘going to vote the lesbian out real quick’.   

The former boxer is no stranger to polemic circumstances – having fought an opponent a decade ago who was half his age. 

The unlikely matchup was overshadowed by his opposite number, Elliot Seymour, being paid to lose the fight. 

Read on below as MailSport takes a look at their fight from 2014 which was fought in a highly unusual manner. 

Initially, it was not known that Rourke’s representatives paid homeless boxer Elliot Seymour $15,000 (£9,500) to ‘go down in the second round’ during their fight in Russia.  

That saw Seymour previously deny allegations that he was paid to throw the fight, before MailOnline exclusively revealed the news in December 2014.

At the time, Seymour was homeless and quoted a family member as saying the Russia match was ‘clearly a fixed fight’ and that Seymour was ‘paid to lose.’

Despite questions over the legitimacy of the fight, Seymour defended Rourke by saying that he had no knowledge of the payout.

He said: ‘As far as I know, Mickey had no knowledge of this’.

‘Mickey’s a stand-up guy, I think he’s a nice man…he didn’t have anything to do with a fix being in. That was all his people.’

Seymour had previously told TMZ he did not lose the fight on purpose, and that the Academy Award-nominated actor, 33 years his senior, beat him in a fair match.

Mr Seymour did admit that he did not have adequate time to prepare for the bout.

‘The fight wasn’t thrown,’ he told the gossip site. ‘I only had one month to train.’

When asked how much money he was paid for the fight, Seymour pointed to a photo of $100 bills fanned out on a bed that had been posted on his Facebook page.

From the picture it appeared that Seymour earnt just over $3,000 (£1,900) for facing Rourke in the ring. 

In an exclusive interview with MailOnline in 2014, a source close to Seymour’s family said that the cash-strapped vagrant was paid to fly to Moscow to make Rourke ‘look good.’

‘It was clearly a fixed fight. The whole bouncing off the ropes, hands down, punches were not landing and they were intentionally hitting each other’s gloves.

‘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.

‘I think it was just an ideal situation where Elliot has a title, he’s desperate and clearly his boxing career isn’t going anywhere and he’s pretty much living on the streets, so for him it’s a win because gets off the streets for a while.

‘One of the well-known boxing reporters writing about the fight said they might as well have got somebody who was sleeping on the subway and it would’ve been a better opponent, well what he doesn’t know is that’s pretty much what happened.’

Rourke was famously trained by Freddie Roach, who owns Hollywood’s Wild Card gym, when he turned to boxing midway through his acting career. 

The legendary coach’s most decorated fighter is ex-superstar Manny Pacquiao, who is the only eight-division world champion in the history of the sport.