George Foreman, twice boxing’s heavyweight champion of the world, died at the age of 76 on Friday.
His family said in a post on Instagram on Friday night: "Our hearts are broken. A devout preacher, a devoted husband, a loving father, and a proud grand and great grandfather, he lived a life marked by unwavering faith, humility, and purpose."
The statement added: "A humanitarian, an Olympian, and two-time heavyweight champion of the world, He was deeply respected - a force for good, a man of discipline, conviction, and a protector of his legacy, fighting tirelessly to preserve his good name - for his family."
Known as “Big George,” Foreman’s life story is a drama in three parts.
The first involved a childhood of extreme poverty in Houston’s notorious Fifth Ward. Foreman was born in Marshall, Texas, on 10 January 1949, and raised along with six siblings by a single mother. Growing up, Foreman never knew his father (one of the reasons all his sons are named George Foreman), and he remembered his siblings calling him “Moorehead,” after the man who sired him but was never a part of the family. The paternal distinction was why he towered above them, growing up to be 6 feet 4 inches. Instead, he grew up as a “Foreman” in a household so poor his mother could only afford to buy a hamburger and cut it into pieces for each child to eat.
A life-changing moment
A member of gangs and a petty street thug, his life changed one night when he was running from the police after a mugging. Hiding under the wooden stilts that adorned the Fifth Ward’s houses, he covered himself in mud to avoid the sniffer dogs and realized that life had to change.
A high-school dropout, he enlisted in the Job Corps, a program introduced in the US in the early 60s to help reduce the unemployment rate and provide vocational training for those aged 16-24. Learning his trade as a carpenter it was also when he first entered the ring.
Foreman’s power was so impressive he accelerated through the US amateur ranks, representing his country at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, where he won gold in the heavyweight division.
Turning professional in June 1969, he won his first 37 bouts before stepping into the ring on January 22, 1973, in Kingston, Jamaica, to take on World Heavyweight Champion Joe Frazier. Frazier was at the pinnacle of his career, having defeated Muhammad Ali two years prior in what was known as the “Fight of the Century” at Madison Square Garden.
Frazier was a heavy favorite against the younger Foreman, but what happened shocked the boxing world. Foreman took the champion apart, flooring him six times in less than two rounds - one of the punches literally lifted Frazier off his feet and into the air. Foreman was heavyweight champion at 24.
Adopting a steely, cold glare and monosyllabic tone in the mold of his hero, Sonny Liston, Foreman found fame and the media challenging to deal with.
He followed up his destruction of Frazier by defending his title against Jose Roman in Japan, before annihilating Ken Norton (another man who had beaten Ali) in Caracas, Venezuela. It seemed his reign as champion would last until the next century, but then came a fateful night in Zaire.
The “Rumble in the Jungle” has gone down in boxing folklore and is such a famous fight it has entered the consciousness of those who don’t even follow boxing. Muhammad Ali - who had reigned as champion from 1964 to 1967 when he was stripped for refusing induction into the US Army to fight in Vietnam - was on a mission to regain his title. At 32 years old, many thought Ali had lost too much speed (his greatest asset when he was young) and power to defeat Foreman. Ali had also had much trouble against Frazier and Norton, both of whom Foreman had decimated within minutes.
Ali spent the fight leaning back on the ropes, allowing Foreman to punch himself out in what he later termed the “rope-a-dope.” Whether a deliberate tactic by boxing’s greatest-ever performer or not, by the eighth round, Foreman was exhausted. A quick, sneaky right followed a left and another right, and the champion found himself on the canvas and counted out. It was pandemonium. The Greatest had regained his crown, and Foreman’s reputation was broken.
He spent the next few years trying to get a rematch with Ali, but the two would never fight again. Instead, Foreman’s life entered its second act when, in March 1977, he lost to Jimmy Young in Puerto Rico. Following the fight, Foreman had what he described as a religious epiphany in the changing room afterward. However, many attributed it to heatstroke and exhaustion - he described plunging into a dark void and felt as if he were dying before a voice called out to him.
“I can give you all my money,” Foreman recalled telling the voice.“I don’t want your money - I want YOU!” the voice told him.He would not fight again for 10 years.
Leaving boxing and becoming a born-again Christian, Foreman was ridiculed for leaving his career behind him, becoming an ordained minister and setting up the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ in Houston. It seemed he would never enter a ring again. However, Providence had other ideas.
Plowing his money into the George Foreman Youth Center to help troubled kids stay off the streets of Houston, he found over the years that it was hemorrhaging money, and after a decade, the only way Foreman could think to keep the center going was to come back to the ring. In 1987, after 10 years away from the ring, Foreman surprised the boxing world by announcing a comeback at the age of 38.
Overweight, old, and described as a "laughing stock," the third act of Foreman’s life saw him fighting in small-town venues before returning to the big time with a fight for the heavyweight title against Evander Holyfield in 1991. It seemed the fight was more for the entertainment value than sporting legitimacy. However, Foreman defied the odds and survived the fight, although he was easily beaten: “With one punch, I thought he knocked all my teeth out,” Holyfield recalled, showing the Foreman had still not lost his power.
His second shot at boxing redemption came on Nov 5, 1994, when he faced Michael Moorer for the heavyweight crown in Las Vegas. For nine rounds, the younger, fresher champion pounced on Foreman and punched away, but Foreman stood his ground, awaiting his moment. He would later claim he was luring Moorer into such a false sense of confidence that he would eventually just stand before him when Foreman would take his chance.
Wearing the same trunks that he had worn in Zaire against Ali those 20 fateful years earlier, Foreman landed a straight right, bang on the button of Moorer’s chin, and down goes the champion. As Moorer lays on his back and is counted out, Foreman kneels in prayer in the corner of the ring. “It happened. IT HAPPENED!” HBO announcer Jim Lampley screamed into the microphone. At 45 years old, Foreman had found his redemption. He was the heavyweight champion of the world again.
In addition to the money Foreman earned from his boxing comeback, he made millions of dollars selling his name and image for the George Foreman Lean Mean Fat-Reducing Grilling Machine, and he joined the HBO boxing announcing team. Retiring in 1997 from the ring for good, he remained working in Houston for the rest of his life with his congregation.
Some people in life have one shot at greatness, one chance to make a moment in history that the world can remember them by. George Foreman, from his fall to his redemption, had two. Rest in peace, Champ.