George Foreman

George Edward Foreman (January 10, 1949 – March 21, 2025) was an American professional boxer, businessman, minister, and author. In boxing, he competed between 1967 and 1997, and was nicknamed "Big George". He was a two-time world heavyweight champion and an Olympic gold medalist. He is the namesake of the George Foreman Grill.

After a troubled childhood, Foreman took up amateur boxing and won a gold medal in the heavyweight division at the 1968 Summer Olympics. Having turned professional the next year, he won the world heavyweight title with a stunning second-round knockout of the then-undefeated Joe Frazier in 1973. He defended the belt twice before suffering his first professional loss to Muhammad Ali in "The Rumble in the Jungle" in 1974. Unable to secure another title opportunity, Foreman retired after a loss to Jimmy Young in 1977.

Following what he referred to as a born again experience, Foreman became an ordained Christian minister. Ten years later he announced a comeback, and in 1994 at age 45 won the unified WBA, IBF, and lineal heavyweight championship titles by knocking out 26-year-old Michael Moorer. He dropped the WBA belt rather than face his mandatory title defense soon after, and following a single successful title defense against Axel Schulz, Foreman relinquished his IBF title as well on June 28, 1995. At 46 years and 169 days old, he became the oldest world heavyweight champion in history, as well as the second-oldest boxer to win a world title in any weight class after Bernard Hopkins at light heavyweight. Foreman also holds the record for the longest interval between world title reigns, spanning more than 20 years. He retired in 1997 at the age of 48, with a final record of 76 wins (68 knockouts) and 5 losses.

Foreman was inducted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame and International Boxing Hall of Fame. The International Boxing Research Organization rates Foreman as the eighth-greatest heavyweight of all time. In 2002, he was named one of the 25 greatest fighters of the past 80 years by The Ring. The Ring ranked him as the ninth-greatest puncher of all time. He was a ringside analyst for HBO's boxing coverage for 12 years until 2004. Outside boxing, Foreman was a successful entrepreneur and known for his promotion of the George Foreman Grill, which has sold more than 100 million units worldwide by 2011. In 1999, he sold the commercial rights to the grill for $138 million.

George Edward Foreman was born in Marshall, Texas, on January 10, 1949 to Leroy Moorehead and Nancy Ree (Nelson). He grew up in the Fifth Ward community of Houston, Texas, with six siblings. He was raised by J.D. Foreman, whom his mother had married when George was a small child. By his own admission in his autobiography, George was a troubled youth. He dropped out of school at the age of 15 and spent time as a mugger. At age 16, Foreman had a change of heart and convinced his mother to sign him up for Job Corps after seeing an ad for the Corps on TV. As part of Job Corps, Foreman earned his GED and trained to become a carpenter and bricklayer. After moving to Pleasanton, California, with the help of a supervisor, he began to train. Foreman was interested in football and idolized Jim Brown, but gave it up for boxing.

Foreman won a gold medal in the boxing/heavyweight division at the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games. In the finals, Foreman defeated the Soviet Union's Jonas Čepulis; the referee stopped the fight in the second round. Čepulis' face was already bleeding in the first round from Foreman's punches, and had to take a standing eight count early in the second round. Čepulis, fighting out of Lithuania, was a 29-year-old veteran with a 12-year-long amateur career, having over 220 fights in his record, quite experienced, and 10 years older than Foreman.

After winning the gold-medal fight, Foreman walked around the ring carrying a small U.S. flag and bowing to the crowd. Foreman maintained that earning the Olympic gold medal was the achievement he was most proud of in his boxing career, more so than either of his world titles.

Foreman turned professional in 1969 with a three-round knockout of Donald Walheim in New York City. He had a total of 13 fights that year, winning all of them (11 by knockout).