Calling it “something new in boxing,” Lewiston’s Roland Fortin has thrown down a challenge to fitness guru Jack LaLanne: four two-minute rounds in the ring, may the best 90-something win.

“I would like that like you wouldn’t believe,” said Fortin. “Winner take all.”

The 1 million-circulation South Florida Sun-Sentinel ran the challenge in a half-page ad for Tropical Gym on Super Bowl Sunday. Fortin, 91, is a snowbird in Pompano Beach at this time of year and a Tropical Gym regular.

Without so much as a peep in response to the challenge from LaLanne, gym owner Troy Eckonen said he’s planning to have someone hand-deliver the ad to fight promoter Don King this week to see if it raises his interest.

“It’d be a gentleman’s fight, obviously,” Eckonen said.

Fortin, who’s wintered in Florida since retiring from the funeral business decades ago, works out every day, an hour a day, during his stays. He lifts up to 200 pounds.

“I feel it keeps me healthy and limber for my age,” he said. “It’s not always pleasant,” but you do it anyway.

Back home in Lewiston in warmer weather, he keeps fit riding an exercycle before bed and carrying caskets.

Fortin’s been around boxing forever.

He remembers as a kid, police would block off Park Street in Lewiston so that fans could gather around the Sun Journal office to listen to big fights delivered via Morse code.

“There were thousands of people, standing like sardines,” Fortin said. “You’d listen and you could hear the ticka-ticka-ticka. Then a man with a loudspeaker would appear at the window and say something like, ‘Round One: Jack Dempsey lands a right jab. Gene Tunney returns the punch with a left.’ We’d get the match, round-by-round, blow-by-blow.”

Later in life, he was a “cut man” for Joey Gamache. (“When he was cut and bleeding, I would keep him going for the next round.”)

The challenge to LaLanne – of body building and juicer fame – came about one day when the guys got to talking at the gym. Eckonen said he ran the ad to let seniors know it’s not too late to get in great shape like Fortin.

“Florida is like the waiting room to the casket,” he quipped.

So far, the ad’s worked: Membership is up.

Fortin, a widower, doesn’t believe either man would really get hurt in a brief square-off. “He’d knock me down, I’d knock him down,” he said.

Reached Tuesday, a spokeswoman for the 92-year-old LaLanne said she was surprised they hadn’t heard of the challenge.

But it wasn’t looking good.

“Mr. LaLanne is so busy traveling the country, he doesn’t do anything like that,” said Liz Cardenas.

Want to challenge Richard Simmons when you’re 90?

Roland Fortin’s formula for good living:

• Eat right. His diet includes oatmeal and a banana for breakfast, taco salad and a large Frosty for lunch and chicken or fish for dinner.

• Keep vices to a minimum: “I’ve never drank or smoked. When I was at the funeral home, you were on call 24 hours a day. You can’t go receiving a family smelling like beer or liquor.”

• Ultimately, good genes count: “I don’t have any wrinkles. I take after my mother, I guess. My mother died at 100 years and 10 days, and she didn’t have one wrinkle.”