Boxing legend George Foreman dies aged 76

BOXING ICON GEORGE Foreman has died aged 76, his family have confirmed.

The two-time heavyweight world champion and Olympic gold medallist passed away “peacefully”, a statement said, while “surrounded by loved ones”.

Foreman, one of the greatest heavyweight boxers to have ever lived, also became a successful entrepreneur, minister, and author during a storied life on either side of the ropes.

The six-foot-three Texan took up amateur boxing after a troubled childhood and won gold at the Mexico Olympics in 1968.

‘Big George’ went on to become professional boxing’s most fearsome heavyweight during his division’s most glorious era, which included Muhammad Ali who famously bested Foreman in ‘The Rumble in the Jungle’ in 1974.

The heavy-handed Foreman, who won the title a year earlier with a stunning second-round knockout of the then-undefeated Joe Frazier, defended his crown twice before falling to Ali in Zaire.

Despite returning in 1976 with successive fifth-round victories over fellow contenders Ron Lyle and Frazier (again), and reeling off three further knockout wins, Foreman was initially unable to secure another shot at the title and retired from boxing following a points loss to the relatively unheralded Jimmy Young in 1977.

Foreman was ordained as a Christian minister following his retirement but returned to the ring as a 36-year-old after a decade-long hiatus in 1987.

Remarkably, he worked his way back to heavyweight title contention by mowing down a string of decent-quality opposition including Gerry Cooney in 1990.

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A year later, at the age of 42, he landed his first title shot in 17 years, coming up short against unified champion Evander Holyfield.

But Foreman persevered and in November 1994, as a 45-year-old, he became the oldest heavyweight world champion in boxing history when he produced an extraordinary come-from-behind knockout of the 35-0 Michael Moorer, stopping the beltholder in the 10th round while trailing significantly on two of the judges’ scorecards.

Foreman, 20 years and a week after his defeat to Ali, was king of the world once more.

He defended his belts once before relinquishing them, fighting on until 1997 when he dropped a majority decision to Shannon Briggs.

Foreman retired for good two months shy of his 49th birthday. His final record in the professional boxing ring was 76-5 (68KOs), giving him a phenomenal knockout ratio of close to 90% across a career that spanned three decades.

Foreman is the second oldest boxer in any weight class to have won a world title, with fellow American great Bernard Hopkins breaking his record on three separate occasions at light-heavyweight in the 2010s.

Two years after his definitive retirement, Foreman sold the commercial rights to the George Foreman Grill for $138 million. He is understood to have earned significantly more than that from the ‘Lean, Mean Grilling Machine’ throughout its existence.

Foreman, who became a revered boxing analyst on HBO in the 2000s, was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2003.

Born in Texas on 10 January, 1949, Foreman grew up in Houston. The man whom he believed to be his father had issues with alcohol and was frequently absent. Foreman only discovered that J. D. Foreman was not his biological father after he won the world heavyweight title for the first time, at which point his real father, a decorated Second World War veteran, made contact with him.

Foreman himself would marry four times, have 10 biological children, and adopt two more. He named all his five of his sons George Edward, once explaining that he wanted them to know, “‘If one of us goes up, then we all go up together, and if one goes down, we all go down together.’”

During his formative years, Foreman flirted with crime and dropped out of school at 16. Though he initially wanted to be a football player, he took up boxing to impress his friends.

At the Mexico Games in 1968, the 19-year-old Foreman hammered his way to super-heavyweight gold and continued apace through professional boxing’s heavyweight division.

Having smashed Frazier to gain the title, Foreman’s record by the time he faced Ali was 40-0 (37KOs).

With Foreman having had to go the distance so infrequently, 4-to-1 underdog Ali banked on tiring the younger, more dangerous heavyweight. Though his ‘rope-a-dope’ tactics in the bout are often exaggerated — Ali dished out plenty from the ropes while absorbing Foreman’s huge, winging blows — the improvised tactics proved devastating.

Ali inflicted upon the exhausted Foreman his first professional defeat in the eighth round, destroying Foreman’s aura of invincibility in front of a worldwide television audience of over a billion people and regaining the heavyweight title.

Foreman would describe it as “the most embarrassing moment of my life” but he later grew to adore Ali, often regaling his social media followers with anecdotes about facing ‘The Greatest’ and then befriending him in retirement.

Foreman’s own second reign as champion in the mid-90s cemented his status as one of the greatest heavyweight boxers ever, and saw him become a pop-culture figure in the USA where he would appear on TV in various guises over the next two decades — including on ‘The Masked Singer’ in 2022.

A statement from his family on Friday night read: “With profound sorrow, we announce the passing of our beloved George Edward Foreman Sr, who peacefully departed on March 21, 2025, surrounded by loved ones.

“A 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 — for his family.

“We are grateful for the outpouring of love and prayers, and kindly ask for privacy as we honor the extraordinary life of a man we were blessed to call our own.”