March 21 (UPI) — George Foreman, a two-time heavyweight champion, the second time at age 45, died Friday in his hometown Houston, his family said. He was 76.
Foreman, who was known as “Big George,” competed against two other legendary boxers, beating Joe Frazier and later losing to Muhammad Ali in title fights.
He earned fame outside of boxing by being the pitchman for the George Foreman Grill, which has sold 100 million units.
“Our hearts are broken,” the family wrote in an Instagram post. “With profound sorrow, we announce the passing of our beloved George Edward Foreman Sr., who peacefully departed on March 21, 2025, surrounded by loved ones.”
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“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 post continued.
At 19, Foreman won an Olympic heavyweight gold medal in 1968 in Mexico City, defeating Soviet Union’s Jonas Cepulis. The next year, he turned pro and won all 13 fights that year and all 12 fights in 1970.
“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,” the post added.
Foreman, at 24, won the heavyweight title with a second-round knockout of the previously undefeated Frazier in 1973 in Kingston, Jamaica. It was known as the Sunshine Showdown.
“I didn’t fear anyone except Joe Frazier,” Foreman said in a 2023 interview with Andscape. “I hoped something would’ve happened to him before I’d ever fight for the title.
“I’ve never told anyone this, but that was the happiest time of my life in boxing because I worked so hard to fulfill my dream and become heavyweight champion. It was the first and last moment I felt that.”
Foreman successfully defended his title against Jose Roman and Ken Norton
In 1975 at 25, he lost an eight-round knockout against Ali in Zaire, which is now the Democratic Republic of Congo. The bout was known as the Rumble in the Jungle.
When We Were Kings documentary, which chronicled the fight, won an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature
First retirement
Then at 28, he announced he was retiring.
He became an ordained minister, and he founded the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ in 1980 in Hoston. Four years later he founded the nonprofit George Foreman Youth and Community Center in Houston.
And 10 years later, he returned to the ring.
Foreman lost title shots against Evander Holyfield in 1991 and Tommy Morrison in 1993.
Frazier was 42 and Holyfield was 28 in the fight hyped as “The Battle of the Ages” at the Trump Plaza Casino in Atlantic City, N.J.
In 1994, at 45, Foreman defeated Michael Moorer, who was 19 years younger, to earn Moorer’s two heavyweight belts in the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Paradise, Nev. In all, Foreman won the unified World Boxing Association, International Boxing Federation and lineal heavyweight championship titles.
Foreman fought only four more times until he retired in 1997 at 48.
His final record was 76 wins, including 68 via knockouts and only five losses.
Then he became a businessman, pitchman and occasional actor.
Starting in 1994, Foreman was the face of the George Foreman Grill for the home appliance company Salton, Inc., now known as Russell Hobbs Inc. It was called the Lean Mean Fat-Reducing Grilling Machine,
“My attorney came to me and said, ‘George, you’re making other people wealthy, why don’t you make yourself wealthy?'” Foreman told People in 2003. “And he told me about this grill.”
In 2022, Foreman competed on Fox’s The Masked Singer.
Foreman’s upbringing
His celebrity life was a far cry from when he was young.
He was born in Marshall, Texas, on Jan. 10, 1949, and grew up poor in Houston’s Fifth Ward with his single mother and six siblings.
In his youth, Foreman bullied other children and “became a mugger and brawler.”
He dropped out of junior high school.
“I have been literally rescued from the gutter. I was out hiding from the police,” Foreman told NBC News in an interview in 2023, the year the biopic Big George Foreman: The Miraculous Story of the Once and Future Heavyweight Champion of the World was released.
Foreman credited the Job Corps program, started by President Lyndon B. Johnson, with the the change.
“I went into boxing at the age of 17 to lose weight and become a great street fighter,” he told Ringside Report in 2000. “Next thing I know, I was fighting as a Golden Glover. It basically all happened as an accident.”
Foreman’s family
Foreman had 12 children, including five sons all named George Edward Foreman.
“I named all my sons George Edward Foreman so they would always have something in common,” Foreman wrote on his website. “I say to them, ‘If one of us goes up, then we all go up together. And if one goes down, we all go down together!'” Two of his grandsons also share the name.
Foreman was married five times, including his current wife, Mary, whom he married in 1985.
