Foreman won boxing heavyweight gold at 1968 Olympics age 19, became champion by defeating Joe Frazier
\n Hamburg
\nFormer heavyweight boxing champion George Foreman, who reclaimed the heavyweight boxing title at age 45, breathed his last on Friday at age 76.
\n\u201cWith profound sorrow, we announce the passing of our beloved George Edward Foreman Sr who peacefully departed on March 21, 2025 surrounded by loved ones,\u201d his family said in an Instagram post.
\nAn intimidating, thunderous puncher who lost his first title to Muhammad Ali in their famous \u201cRumble in the Jungle\u201d in 1974, \u201cBig George\u201d was a more rotund, jovial figure when he knocked out Michael Moorer for his second crown two decades later.
\nForeman\u2019s comeback and the fortune he made selling fat-wicking electric cooking grills made him an icon of self-improvement and success for the Baby Boom generation.
\nBorn in Marshall, Texas, on January 10, 1949, Foreman\u2019s family soon moved to Houston where he and his six siblings were raised by a single mother. Growing up poor in the segregated American South, Foreman dropped out of junior high school and used his size and fists in street robberies.
\n\u201cGeorge\u2019s journey from the streets of Fifth Ward to boxing and business success was an inspiration,\u201d Houston Mayor John Whitmire said in a statement.
\n\u201cHe never forgot where he came from […] Houston will forever be proud to call George Foreman one of our own.\u201d
\nThe Job Corps, part of President Lyndon B Johnson\u2019s \u201cGreat Society\u201d reforms, \u201crescued me from the gutter,\u201d Foreman later wrote. Through the programme, 16-year-old Foreman moved out of Texas and was encouraged to channel his rage and growing bulk into boxing.
\nAt age 19 and in his 25th amateur fight, Foreman captured the heavyweight boxing gold medal at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. Turning pro, he won 37 straight matches on his way to face reigning champion Joe Frazier in Kingston, Jamaica, winning by technical knockout in round two.
\nForeman defended the belt twice more before meeting Ali in Kinshasa, Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in one of the most celebrated boxing matches in history.
\nAli had been stripped of his crown seven years prior for refusing to be drafted into the Vietnam War and came into the match a heavy underdog against the bigger, younger champion. But for seven rounds, Ali laid against the ropes and fended off Foreman\u2019s clubbing blows, tiring him before knocking him out in the eighth round.
\n\u201cI was one strong heavyweight punching fighter,\u201d Foreman told Reuters in 2007. \u201cI was one punching machine and that was the first time I delivered everything I had and nothing worked.\u201d
\nThe loss devastated Foreman. He took a year off before returning to the ring and then, after a second professional loss, retired in 1977 to become an ordained minister in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ.
\nA decade later and considerably heavier at 315 pounds (143 kg), Foreman staged an unlikely return to the ring to raise money for a youth centre he founded in Texas.
\nHe went on to win 24 straight matches, gradually slimming along the way, before losing to Evander Holyfield in a 12-round decision in 1991. Three years later, he knocked out undefeated southpaw Moorer to become the oldest-ever heavyweight champion at age 45.
\nForeman\u2019s last match was in 1997, ending his career with a professional record of 76 wins and five losses.
\nForeman was married four times in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1985, he married for the fifth time to Mary Joan Martelly, with whom he remained for the rest of his life. He had five sons \u2014 all called George \u2014 five biological daughters, and two adopted daughters.
\nThroughout the 1990s and after retirement, he was an enthusiastic pitchman for various products, most notably an electric grill from home appliance maker Salton Inc. In 1999, the company paid Foreman and his partners $137.5 million to put his name on the grill and other goods.
\n\u201cWhat I do is fall in love with every product I sell,\u201d Foreman wrote in his autobiography, \u201cBy George.\u201d
\n\u201cThat\u2019s what sells. Just like with preaching.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Foreman won boxing heavyweight gold at 1968 Olympics age 19, became champion by defeating Joe Frazier Hamburg Former heavyweight boxing champion George Foreman, who reclaimed the heavyweight boxing title at age 45, breathed his last on Friday at age 76. \u201cWith profound sorrow, we announce the passing of our beloved George Edward Foreman Sr who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":468692,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-468656","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n