Don’t provoke the Bard — he has a mean uppercut. Bob Dylan’s fondness for boxing has been well documented over the years, so much so that we’ve been waiting on our invite to use his fabled Santa Monica gym. Sean Penn, though, didn’t need to leave his house for such a rendezvous. Appearing on The Tonight Show on September 23, the actor confirmed a rumor that the duo had been sparring partners. “Bob Dylan, turns out, is a student of boxing,” he said. “I had a 16-foot punching ring in my house, and I was friendly with his son.” The son in question, director Jesse Dylan, relayed to Penn that Dylan wanted to train together. “He would show up every morning. It went on for about a month. About seven or eight a clock in the morning with his hoodie on and about six bullmastiffs coming out of a VW van,” Penn explained. “There wasn’t a lot of conversation. It was kind of like, ‘Good? Good,’ and we would spar.” Gina Gershon is also among the rarified group of people allowed to take a jab at Dylan, once reminiscing about their time in the ring: “I hit him so hard and I thought, Oh my God! I just hit Bob Dylan, and he was, ‘Oh, no, it’s okay. I need a good woman to do this every now and then.’” He would know best.
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His former boxing partner Sean Penn fondly recalled their morning ritual.
