Boxing great George Foreman dead at 76
The world is mourning the loss of George Foreman, two-time world heavyweight champion and wealthy entrepreneur, has died.
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The world is mourning former heavyweight champion George Foreman, who has died aged 76.
Foreman, who fought and lost against Muhammad Ali in boxing’s iconic 1974 “Rumble in the Jungle” before reclaiming the title two decades later, passed away peacefully according to his family.
They announced the news on his Instagram page on Friday night local time (Saturday AEDT) alongside a photo of Foreman surrounded by family members.
“Our hearts are broken,” the caption read.
“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.
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.”
Born in Texas on January 10, 1949, Foreman grew up in Houston. The man who raised him was frequently absent and often drunk. Foreman only found out that J. D. Foreman was not his biological father after he won the world heavyweight when his real father, a decorated Second World War veteran, got in touch.
As an adolescent Foreman flirted with crime and dropped out of school at 16.
“At 13-years-old, George was about 6-foot-2, 200 pounds and the terrorist in the neighbourhood,” his younger brother Roy told the BBC in 2024.
“And when you’re bigger and stronger and think you’re better than everyone else, you take things.”
At 16, he took up boxing.
“I wanted to a football player,” Foreman said on his website.
“I tried boxing just to show my friends that I wasn’t afraid. Well, 25 fights and one year later, I was an Olympic gold medallist.”
Early in his fighting career – which spanned from the 1960s to the 1990s – Big George, as he was nicknamed, fought the likes of Chuck Wepner, Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali, Dwight Muhammad Qawi and Evander Holyfield.
Following his career in the ring, Foreman turned his drive and amiable personality to business, using his popularity to become a multimillion-dollar success story selling grills.
Foreman admitted he had been a bully in his youth who turned to petty crime and dropped out of school at 16 before testing his mettle as a boxer.
He found success early on and rose quickly through the amateur ranks to become Olympic heavyweight champion 18 months after first stepping into the ring.
At the Mexico Games in 1968, the 19-year-old bludgeoned his way to the super-heavyweight gold. As he celebrated his final victory, 10 days after fellow African Americans Tommie Smith and John Carlos had made a black power salute following the 200m track final, Foreman waved an American flag in the ring.
He soon turned professional and took on a heavy schedule with as many as 12 bouts a year.
His first shot at the world title came in 1973 against Frazier – the man who couldn’t lose – in Jamaica.
But Foreman dominated the fight and knocked down Frazier six times before the bout was halted during the second round.
Foreman defended the title against Ali during the famous Rumble in the Jungle fight in 1974 and, despite being the favourite, lost to a knockout in the eighth round.
He hung up the gloves after five more wins, including a second over Frazier, in 1977.
Citing his religious beliefs and his mother’s pleas, he retired at age 28, after he lost on points to another contender, Jimmy Young in March 1977 on a hot night in Puerto Rico.
Foreman fell ill after the fight and said he sensed God telling him to change his life.
He retired and became an ordained minister.
But he was lured back to the ring in 1987 to chase his championship title.
Foreman became a boxing icon after returning to the sport from a 10-year hiatus with the sole purpose of regaining his heavyweight title at the age of 45.
Expectedly, there was much scepticism that a fighter of Foreman’s advanced years could go the distance in the ring against a younger opponent, let alone regain the world title.
But Foreman did just that shocking the boxing world and fans around the world.
He spent three years in training and scored 24 straight wins that set him up for a shot at the title against Holyfield in 1991. Foreman was 42.
Despite a worthy performance, Foreman lost the decision and critics labelled his effort “brave”, expecting his shot a regaining the title to be little more than a dream.
His next shot at the title came in 1994 against the 26-year-old Moorer who had one victory against Holyfield under his belt.
Skeptics said the title shot had only been afforded Big George because of his fame and the pulling power of his advanced years, suggesting he was not deserving of the second chance.
At the time Foreman said: “It’s not about deserving, because I’ve got it.”
Behind on points, Foreman had thrown only 369 punches to Moorer’s 641, when he landed the one that counted his opponent out in the 10th round.
Big George became the oldest heavyweight champion in history.
His final fight was a loss against Shannon Briggs in 1997. Foreman was 48 when he retired again.
He fought 81 times as a professional, winning 76, 68 of those by a knockout. In 1994, he put his name to the “George Foreman Lean Mean Fat-Reducing Grilling Machine”, appearing smiling and friendly in the TV ads, becoming a celebrity outside boxing.
Foreman, who hosted a 1996 TV program ‘Bad Dads’, married four times, fathering 10 children and adopting two.
He named all his five sons George Edward, explaining that he wanted them to know, “’If one of us goes up, then we all go up together, and if one goes down, we all go down together!’”
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