George Foreman, whose boxing career included an Olympic gold medal, a dominant climb to the heavyweight title and a stunning defeat in the famed “Rumble in the Jungle,” all before he came back to reclaim the title at the age of 45 and become a cuddly pitchman for his popular Foreman Grill, died Friday at the age of 76, according to an Instagram post by his family.
Decades before his commercial success, Foreman’s professional championship reign began with one of the most iconic calls in sports history.
“Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier!”
A troubled youth who dropped out of school at 15, Foreman turned his life around after joining the Job Corps and working as a carpenter and bricklayer. He was drawn to boxing “just to show my friends I wasn’t afraid,” Foreman wrote on his website. “Well, 25 fights and one year later, I was an Olympic gold medalist.”
From there, Foreman won the first 37 professional fights of his career to earn a title shot against Joe Frazier, the heavily favored undisputed champ, in “The Sunshine Showdown.”
Howard Cosell’s shrieking call in the 1973 classic matched the bewilderment of the boxing world as Foreman stunned Frazier with a second-round TKO after knocking down the champ six times, forcing referee Arthur Mercante to call for the bell.
In his first two defenses, Foreman established himself as a dominant champ with early finishes of José Roman and Ken Norton. That laid the foundation for one of the most revered bouts in boxing history.
The 1974 “Rumble in the Jungle” between Foreman and Muhammad Ali was billed to be the greatest sporting event of the 20th century and delivered by every metric. Set in Kinshasa, Zaire, in front of 60,000 fans, the fight became famous for the arrival of Ali’s trash-talking poetry and rope-a-dope defense en route to Ali’s eighth-round knockout.
The bout was estimated to be the most-watched live television broadcast in history and inspired the 1996 Academy Award-winning documentary “When We Were Kings.”
But while Ali became immortalized as boxing’s icon, the loss marked a fork in Foreman’s career. He wouldn’t fight another professional bout for two years, and despite knocking out Frazier again in a 1976 rematch, Foreman announced his retirement in 1977 at 28 years old after a loss to Jimmy Young.
Foreman later said he became extremely ill after the loss, suffering from heat stroke and exhaustion in his locker room. There, he found God.
“That night in the dressing room after Jimmy Young, I was so tired and so hot, and I just couldn’t keep fight, fight, fighting for my life,” he said. “Then I heard a voice in that dressing room that asked, ‘Do you believe in God? Why are you ready to die?’ I had just been talking about God. I didn’t really believe in religion. I started fighting, trying to make a deal. Still, then, I wasn’t fighting anyone I knew. I said to the voice, ‘Look, I am George Foreman. I can give money to charity and for cancer,’ and the voice answered me back: ‘I don’t want your money, I want you.’”
Muhammad Ali and George Foreman faced off at the “Rumble in the Jungle” in 1974. (STR / AFP via Getty Images)
For the next decade, Foreman dedicated his life to becoming a minister, establishing the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ in Houston. In 1984, he founded the George Foreman Youth and Community Center.
But by 1987, Foreman was running out of money and opted to return to boxing after a decade away, coming back to the ring to raise money for his ministries, his website biography reads. Thus began the second stint.
Over the next four years, he reeled off 23 straight victories to re-establish his name atop boxing’s heavyweight division. The streak earned him a title bout against Evander Holyfield in 1991, which Foreman lost via unanimous decision, his first defeat in 14 years. But three more victories earned Foreman another title shot, this time against Michael Moorer for the WBA and IBF titles.
Despite being unranked coming off a 1993 loss, Foreman was granted the title request thanks to his famous name, which became world-renowned due to his successful move into the commercial space, including the inception of the George Foreman Grill and his comedic starring role in “George” on ABC.
At 45 years old, Foreman was a major underdog to the 26-year-old Moorer, who had defeated Holyfield just months earlier. Wearing the same red trunks as when he lost to Ali, Foreman later said his goal was to lay to rest his ghost from the “Rumble in the Jungle.”
And lay it to rest he did. After being dominated by the quicker Moorer for the first seven rounds, Foreman found his timing late in the fight and landed combination after combination. Moorer, who rejected his trainer Teddy Atlas’ coaching, pressed forward on the older former champ. Late in the 10th round, Foreman floored him with a flush combination to the jaw, and Moorer never got back to his feet.
With the win, Foreman became the oldest world heavyweight champion in boxing history and the first to regain a world title over two decades after initially losing it.
After defending the belts in 1995, Foreman vacated the titles and later retired for good in 1997. In his retirement, he returned to his ministry — where he preached three times per week — and continued his lucrative business success. In 1999, Salton Inc. paid $137.5 million for rights to use Foreman’s name on grills.
But in his final decades, Foreman also said it was his friendship with Ali he came to cherish.
“I was pretty close to hating him. I wanted revenge,” Foreman told USA Today in 2023. “He became the best and one of the longest friends I’ve ever had. I love him to this day.”
The two talked on the phone regularly, Foreman said, discussing everything from faith to fatherhood. Foreman, the born-again Christian; Ali, the devoted Muslim convert. Foreman had 12 children (including five sons named George), and Ali had nine children.
When Ali died in 2016, Foreman was an honorary pallbearer.
“We fought in 1974; that was a long time ago. After 1981, we became the best of friends. By 1984, we loved each other,” Foreman said in 2012. “I am not closer to anyone else in this life than I am to Muhammad Ali.”
Credit: The Athletic