Heavyweight boxing legend dies aged 76, says family
Heavyweight legend George Foreman died at the age of 76, according to his family.
He was known as Big George since the 1960s, and he has participated in decades of competitions, winning gold medals and many championship belts at the Olympics, including twice the world heavyweight title.
He lost Muhammad Ali’s first title in the famous rumble in 1974’s Jungle War. However, the foreman’s professional boxing career won an astonishing 76 victories and 68 defeats, almost twice as much as Alibaba. The foreman lost five times in his career.
He won his first World Heavyweight Championship in 1973, and then won the 45-year-old in 1994. He retired from the sport in 1997 and then again found fame and fortune to become the best-selling barbecue grill named after him.
His family said in an Instagram post Friday night: “Our hearts are broken.
“A devout missionary, a devout husband, a loving father, and a proud grandfather and great-grandfather, who lived a life marked by firm faith, humility and purpose.”
“He is a humanitarian, Olympic athlete and two-time heavyweight champion, and he is deeply respected – the power of kindness, discipline, faith and protector of his legacy, fighting relentlessly to maintain his good name – fighting for his family.”
The foreman was born on January 10, 1949 in Marshall, Texas, and was raised by a single mother and six siblings in the quarantined southern United States.
He dropped out of school, turned to the street robbery, and finally found his socket in the ring.
The foreman won the heavyweight gold medal at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, aged 19 and won 37 consecutive games.
In 1973, his defending champion Joe Frazier in Kingston, Jamaica defeated former unbeaten champion Joe Frazier, six times in the first two rounds.
His rumble against Ali in the jungle in 1974 in Kinshasa, Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, remains one of the most famous boxing matches of all time.
The elderly Ali was weak after being stripped of the crown for refusing to be selected for the Vietnam War seven years ago.
The foreman said later, “I said I was going there to kill him, and people said, ‘Please don’t say you are going to kill Muhammad.’
“So I said, ‘Okay, I just knocked him down.’ That’s how easy I think this fight is.”
However, the cunning Ali used a tactic that later became known as the “rope”, which exhausted the foreman, causing him to wave hundreds of punches before Ali unloaded him and knocked down the knockout round in the eighth round.
After a second career loss, the foreman retired in 1977 and appointed minister in the Lord Jesus Christ Church in Texas, which he established and established.
“We started informal meetings in various houses in Houston, and soon after, the crowds became too large for most houses to accommodate,” Foreman said on his website.
“Eventually, we bought a piece of land and an old, dilapidated building on the northeast side of Houston.”
The foreman retired in 1987 to raise funds for a youth center he founded. He won 24 games before losing to Evander Holyfield after 12 rounds in 1991.
In 1994, the foreman eliminated the unbeaten Michael Moorer and became the oldest heavyweight champion at the age of 45.
He became an advertising salesman for George Foreman grills, which has purchased millions of people since its launch in 1994, in part because of his memorable tagline “Lean Mean BBQ Machine.”
The foreman got married five times. He has more than a dozen children. His five sons are George.
He explained on his website that he named it after himself, so they “always have something in common.”
“I said to them, ‘If we go up alone, then we all go up together.” “If one falls, we all go down together!”
