{"id":22993,"date":"2025-03-21T22:56:51","date_gmt":"2025-03-22T04:56:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/george-foreman-the-fearsome-heavyweight-who-became-a-beloved-champion-dies-at-76\/"},"modified":"2025-03-22T04:56:51","modified_gmt":"2025-03-22T04:56:51","slug":"george-foreman-the-fearsome-heavyweight-who-became-a-beloved-champion-dies-at-76","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/george-foreman-the-fearsome-heavyweight-who-became-a-beloved-champion-dies-at-76\/","title":{"rendered":"George Foreman, the fearsome heavyweight who became a beloved champion, dies at 76"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"FILE
FILE – Former heavyweight boxing champion George Foreman tells a story to the audience at the Sports Illustrated Legacy Awards, Oct. 1, 2015, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo\/Timothy D. Easley, File)<\/span>dur-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

George Foreman, the fearsome heavyweight who lost the \u201cRumble in the Jungle\u201d to Muhammad Ali before his inspiring second act as a 45-year-old champion and a successful businessman, died Friday night. He was 76.<\/p>\n

Foreman’s family announced his death on social media<\/a>, not saying how or where he died.<\/p>\n

\u201cA 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,” his family wrote. \u201cA 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\u2014 for his family.\u201d<\/p>\n

A native Texan, Foreman began his boxing career as an Olympic gold medalist who inspired fear as he climbed to the peak of the heavyweight division by stopping Joe Frazier in 1973. His formidable aura evaporated only a year later when Ali pulled off one of the most audacious victories in boxing history in Zaire, baiting and taunting Foreman into losing his belt in one of the greatest fights ever staged.<\/p>\n

Foreman left the sport a few years later, but returned after a 10-year absence and a self-described religious awakening.<\/p>\n

The 45-year-old then pulled off one of the most spectacular knockouts in boxing history in 1994, flooring Michael Moorer \u2014 19 years his junior \u2014 with one perfect combination to claim Moorer’s two heavyweight belts.<\/p>\n

\"FILE
FILE – George Foreman yells, Oct. 15, 1974, in N'Sele, Kinshasa, Zaire. (AP Photo\/Horst Faas, File)<\/span>dur-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Foreman’s transformation into an inspirational figure was complete, and he fought only four more times before moving onto his next career as a genial businessman, pitchman and occasional actor.<\/p>\n

He was best known as the face of the George Foreman Grill, which launched in the same year as his victory over Moorer. The simple cooking machine sold more than 100 million units and made him much wealthier than his sport ever did.<\/p>\n

\u201cGeorge was a great friend to not only myself, but to my entire family,\u201d Top Rank president Bob Arum said. \u201cWe\u2019ve lost a family member and are absolutely devastated.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the first chapter of his boxing career, Foreman was nothing like the smiling grandfather who hawked his grills on television to great success.<\/p>\n

Foreman dabbled in petty crime while growing up in Houston\u2019s Fifth Ward, but changed his life through boxing. He made the U.S. Olympic team in 1968 and won gold in Mexico City as a teenager, stopping a 29-year-old opponent in a star-making performance.<\/p>\n

\"FILE
FILE – Perspiration flies from the head of George Foreman as he takes a right from challenger Muhammad Ali in the seventh round in the match dubbed Rumble in the Jungle in Kinshasa, Zaire, Oct. 30, 1974. (AP Photo\/Ed Kolenovsky, File)<\/span>dur-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Foreman rose to the pinnacle of the pro game over the next five years, but was also perceived as an aloof, unfriendly athlete, both through his demeanor and through the skewed racial lenses of the time. He stopped Frazier in an upset in Jamaica in January 1973 to win the belt, with his knockout inspiring Howard Cosell\u2019s iconic call: \u201cDown goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier!\u201d<\/p>\n

Foreman defended his belt against Ken Norton before accepting the fight with Ali in the now-immortal bout staged in Africa by promoter Don King. Ali put on a tactical masterclass against Foreman, showing off the \u201crope-a-dope\u201d strategy that frustrated and infuriated the champion. Foreman was eventually knocked down for the first time in his career, and the fight was stopped in the eighth round.<\/p>\n

Foreman told the BBC in 2014 that he took the fight almost out of charity to Ali, who he suspected to be broke.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said I was going to go out there and kill him, and people said, \u2018Please, don\u2019t say you\u2019re going to kill Muhammad,\u2019\u201d Foreman said. \u201cSo I said, \u2018OK, I\u2019ll just beat him down to the ground.\u2019 That\u2019s how easy I thought the fight would be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Exhausted and disillusioned, Foreman stopped fighting in 1977 and largely spent the next decade preaching and working with kids in Houston after his religious awakening. He returned to boxing in 1987 in his late 30s with a plan to defy time through frequent ring appearances, and he racked up a lengthy series of victories before losing to Evander Holyfield in a surprisingly competitive title fight in 1991.<\/p>\n

Three years later, Foreman got in the ring with Moorer in Las Vegas, more for his celebrity than for his perceived ability to beat Moorer. The champion appeared to win the first nine rounds rather comfortably, with Foreman unable to land his slower punches. But Foreman came alive in the 10th, hurting Moorer before slipping in the short right hand that sent Moorer to the canvas in spectacular fashion.<\/p>\n

Foreman quit the ring for good in 1997, although he occasionally discussed a comeback. He settled into a life as a boxing analyst for HBO and as a pitchman for the grills that grew his fame and fortune. He briefly starred in a sitcom called \u201cGeorge\u201d in the 1990s, and he even appeared on the reality singing competition \u201cThe Masked Singer\u201d in 2022. A biographical movie based on his life was released in 2023.<\/p>\n

Foreman had 12 children, including five sons who are all famously named George Edward Foreman.<\/p>\n

\u201cLegendary boxing champion, life-changing preacher, husband, father, grand- and great-grandfather and the best friend you could have,\u201d WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman wrote on social media. \u201cHis memory is now eternal, may Big George rest in peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP boxing: https:\/\/apnews.com\/boxing<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

– Former heavyweight boxing champion George Foreman tells a story to the audience at the Sports Illustrated Legacy Awards, Oct. 1, 2015, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo\/Timothy D. Easley, File)dur-i-syn George Foreman, the fearsome heavyweight who lost the \u201cRumble in the Jungle\u201d to Muhammad Ali before his inspiring second act as a 45-year-old champion […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22994,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[2506,28,346,2505],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-22993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-boxing","tag-headlines","tag-sports","tag-summer-olympics"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22993"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=22993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}