George Foreman has become the world heavyweight champion in her twenties, to lose his belt against Muhammad Ali in the most memorable fight boxing history.
20 years later in 1994, the 45 -year -old foreman became the oldest man to win the heavyweight championship, launching a perfect combination to steal the title of Michael Moorer in an epic upheaval.
Few fighters have ever had more moments than Big George Foreman – and even after finally leaving the ring, he was just starting.
The formidable heavy goods vehicle, which lost the “rumble in the jungle” against Ali before his second act inspiring as a surprising champion and a prosperous businessman, died on Friday evening. Foreman was 76 years old.
Foreman’s family announced his death on social networks, without saying how or where he died.
“A devout preacher, a devoted husband, a loving father and a proud grand-grandfather, he lived a life marked by an unshakable faith, a humility and a goal,” wrote his family. “Humanitarian, Olympian and double champion of heavyweights in the world, he was deeply respected. A force for good, a man of discipline, a conviction and a protector of his inheritance, fighting tirelessly to preserve his good name – for his family.”
A native Texan, Foreman began his boxing career as an Olympic gold medalist who inspired fear and fear when he went up to the top of the heavyweight division by stopping Joe Frazier in 1973. His formidable aura only evaporated, when Ali succeeded one of the most daring victories of the Boxing History in Zaire, His belt.
Foreman left sport a few years later, but returned after an absence of 10 years and an self -proclaimed religious awakening.
The middle -aged fighter then succeeded one of the most spectacular knockuts in the history of boxing, the engine of floor coverings – 19 years his junior – with a surgical right hand and claiming the two strangers of Moor’s heavy goods vehicles. Foreman’s 20th anniversary are easily the longest gap between the reigns of the title of heavy goods vehicles.
Foreman’s transformation into an inspiring figure was complete, and he only fought four times more – finishing 76-5 with 68 Knockouts – before going to his next career as a brilliant businessman, Pitchman and Occasional actor.
Apart from the ring, he was best known as the face of the George Foreman Grill, who was launched the same year as his victory over Moier. The simple kitchen machine has sold more than 100 million units and made it much richer than its sport.
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“George was a great friend not only for myself, but also for my whole family,” said high-ranking president Bob Arum. “We have lost a family member and are absolutely devastated.”
In the first chapter of his boxing career, Foreman had nothing to do with the smiling grandfather who staggered his gates on television with great success.
The foreman has gained the magnitude of unequal crimes while growing up in the fifth district of Houston, but changed his life with boxing. He made the American Olympic team in 1968 and won gold in Mexico City in adolescence, stopping a 29 -year -old opponent in a star performance.
Foreman has reached the summit of professional game over the next five years, but was also perceived as a distance and hostile athlete, both by his behavior and through asymmetrical racial lenses of the time.
Jim Lampley, the veteran boxing diffuser who worked alongside Foreman for many years in HBO, the Associated Press told the Foreman’s initial behavior on Friday evening was an attempt to imitate Sonny Liston, the heavy heavyweight champion of the 1960s.
“At one point somewhere along the way, he realized that it was not,” said Lampley.
Foreman stopped Frazier in an upheaval in Jamaica in January 1973 to win the belt, with his emblematic access coup inspiring the emblematic call of Howard Cosell: “Down Va Frazier! Down becomes Frazier!”
Foreman defended his belt against Ken Norton before accepting the fight with Ali in the now immortal fight staged in Africa by the promoter Don King. Ali put a tactical masterclass against the foreman, showing the strategy of “cord-a-food” which frustrated and furious the champion. Foreman was finally overthrown for the first time in his career, and the fight was stopped in the eighth round.
Foreman told the BBC in 2014 that he had removed the fight almost from the charitable organization in Ali, that he suspected of being broke.
“I said I was going to go there and kill him, and people said,” Please don’t say that you are going to kill Muhammad “,” said Foreman. “So I said,” Ok, I’m just going to beat him to the ground. “It is how easy the fight would be.
DOSSE – The Great Boxing Muhammad Ali, on the left, and George Foreman arrive at a Vanity Fair Oscar Day in West Hollywood, California, March 24, 1997.
AP Photo / EJ Flynn, file
Exhausted and disillusioned, Foreman stopped fighting in 1977 and largely spent the next decade to preach and work with children in Houston after his religious awakening. He returned to boxing in 1987 at the end of the thirties with a plan to challenge time thanks to frequent ring appearances, and he accumulated a long series of victories before losing against Evander Holyfield in a surprisingly competitive title fight in 1991.
Three years later, Foreman entered the ring with Moorer in Las Vegas, more for his celebrity than for his perceived ability to beat Moower. The champion seemed to win the first nine rounds rather comfortably, against the foreman incapable of winning his slower strokes. But the foreman came to life in the 10th, injuring Moower before slipping into the short right hand which sent moor on the canvas in a shaken by the earth.
Lampley, who called the fight, has appointed his next autobiography – who includes a prologue on Foreman – after his famous call of this moment: “It happened!”
Foreman left the ring for good in 1997, although he sometimes discussed a return. He settled in a life as a boxing analyst for HBO and as a pitchman for grills that increased his fame and his fortune. A large part of the world quickly experienced a foreman both like an adorable friend and a fierce fighter.
“He started playing as a pitchman, this product pitchman with the omnipresent great giant, omnipresent on his face,” recalls Lampley. “When I worked with him, people said,” George is a big clown “. And I would say: “Well, you can call him a clown, but it is actually a genius. He may be the biggest genius I have ever met.” And people said: “Well, genius, what do you mean?” I would say: “Well, check the bank account. He was a genius. He was a human genius.”
Foreman briefly played in a sitcom entitled “George” in the 1990s, and he even appeared on the reality song competition “The Masked Singer” in 2022. A biographical film based on his life was released in 2023.
Foreman had 12 children, including five sons who all bear the name of George Edward Foreman.
“Legendary boxing champion, preacher who changes life, husband, father, grand-grandfather and the best friend you might have,” wrote WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman, on social networks. “His memory is now eternal, which Big George rests in peace.”
The AP sports writer, Brian Mahoney, contributed to this report.