Olympic bronze medalist Tony Jeffries recently appeared on Ben Drohan’s podcast, where he reflected on a potential business partnership with Hollywood actor Mickey Rourke that ultimately never came to fruition.
When asked by host Ben Drohan whether Mickey Rourke was originally involved in the gym, Tony Jeffries explained that the connection came through Rourke’s girlfriend, who was attending one of their early boxing boot camps.
“So yeah, Mickey Rourke, he loves boxing and his girlfriend was one of the members at our boot camp, our donationary boot camp,” Jeffries said.
According to Jeffries, Rourke became interested after learning about plans for a future gym.
“And she was like, Mickey wants to… he knew that I was going to do a gym. He wanted to be involved and do the gym,” he said.
Jeffries admitted he was excited by the prospect of partnering with the Hollywood star.
“So I was like, ‘F**k me, Mickey Rourke,'” he said. “Yeah, went to his house and even Sky Sports, a TV network from the UK, come interviewed us about us opening the gym together and all that and it was great.”
Despite the early enthusiasm, Jeffries said the partnership fell apart once negotiations began and the terms changed.
“But then when we were negotiating for the contract, he then wanted more than he originally said,” Jeffries explained.
He said the initial agreement was straightforward.
“It was supposed to be a fair split between, he was going to invest 100 grand between the gym and me and me business partner at the time,” he said. “It’s going to be a 33-33-33 split for the gym.”
However, Jeffries said Rourke later wanted a share of revenue that had never been part of the original arrangement.
“But then it was like, but I also want all of 33% of your personal training money as well,” he recalled.
That demand was a deal-breaker.
“Which was like, well, no, we’re going to be keeping that cuz that’s going to help us pay for,” Jeffries said. “So it didn’t work.”
Looking back, Jeffries believes the failed deal ended up benefiting him and the business.
“Which was great,” he said. “Was really good that he wasn’t involved because he wouldn’t have brought anything to the table.”
When Drohan suggested that Rourke would have been little more than a source of funding, Jeffries immediately agreed.
“It would have been dumb money. Exactly. It would have been dumb money,” he said.
Jeffries concluded by saying he is thankful the partnership never materialized.
“And it would have been a nightmare, but right now I was so glad that he didn’t get involved.”
