According to his memorial plaque, Mickey Goldmill was born on 7 April 1905 to a Jewish family. He boxed professionally from 1922 until 1947 and achieved great athletic success but never gained any measure of fame or material success. Goldmill recalled that he once knocked fictional opponent, Ginny Russell, out of the ring the same day that Luis Firpo did the same to Jack Dempsey: 14 September 1923. 
Goldmill claimed that the reason his victory did not garner any media attention was that he did not have a manager, while Dempsey did. He retired in 1947, with a record of 72 Wins, (70 K.O.’s), 1 Loss. Some time after his retirement (in 1948), he opened a boxing gym in Philadelphia, Mighty Mick’s Boxing, and began to train fighters. There is an apparent continuity error on Goldmill’s actual birth year. 
In late 1975, he tells Rocky that he’s 76 years old, which would have meant he was born in either 1898 or 1899.However, his memorial plaque says he was born in 1905. It is possible that he lied about his age (stating that he was 23 when he was actually 17) to start boxing and kept up the pretense for the rest of his life.
