Former heavyweight champion George Foreman, who fought and lost against Muhammad Ali in the emblematic “Rumble in the Jungle” of boxing before recovering the title two decades later, died Friday at the age of 76, his family announced in a statement. “With deeply sadness, we announce the death of our beloved George Edward Foreman SR, who left for peace on March 21, 2025, surrounded by relatives,” said Foreman’s family in a statement published on the official Instagram page of the boxer.
“We are grateful to the outpouring of love and prayers, and like to ask for an intimacy when we honor the extraordinary life of a man that we were lucky to call ours.”
Born in Texas on January 10, 1949, Foreman grew up in Houston. The man who raised it was often absent and often drunk. Foreman only discovered that JD Foreman was not his biological father after winning the heavyweight of the world when his real father, a veteran decorated with the Second World War, was in contact.
As an adolescent, the foreman flirted with crime and abandoned school at 16 years old.
“At 13, George was about 6 feet 2 inches and 200 pounds and the district terrorist,” said his younger brother Roy to the BBC in 2024. “And when you are larger and stronger and you are better than everyone, you take things.”
At 16, he took boxing.
“I wanted a football player,” said Foreman on his website. “I tried to box just to show my friends that I was not afraid. Well, 25 fights and a year later, I was an Olympic gold medalist.”
During the Mexico Games in 1968, the 19 -year -old foreman entered the gold of super heavy weights. While celebrating his final victory, 10 days after the African-American compatriots Tommie Smith and John Carlos had made a salvation of black power after the 200m track final, the foreman agitated an American flag in the ring.
At 6 feet 4 inches (1.93 m), “Big George” was larger and stronger than the other heavy goods vehicles of the time. He was light on his feet, but made his way through the professional ranks, to win a heavyweight title against the champion Joe Frazier, demolishing the champion in two laps.
As he fought his third defending defense in 15 laps against Ali in October 1974 in Kinshasa, Foreman was undefeated in 40 professional fights. He had all won except three inside the distance and did not need to develop endurance.
Ali’s “rope” tactics, exhausted the great man who lost in eight towers.
The defeat has perforated the intimidating aura of the foreman, especially in his own mind.
“I just couldn’t believe that I had lost the world title,” he said later. “It was the most embarrassing moment of my life. It went from pride to pity. It is devastating.”
His campaign for another title shot ended when he lost points against another competitor, Jimmy Young in March 1977 during a hot night in Puerto Rico.
Foreman fell ill after the fight and said he felt God telling him to change his life.
He retired, 28 years old and became ordered minister. When he announced his return 10 years later, Bald where he had already sported an Afro and a flange instead of chiseling, it looked like a boxing gadget. He later wrote that he needed money for his youth center.
Knuckle
Over the next three years, he fought 21 times, mainly against mediocre opponents, winning each fight, including 20 inside.
A big name in a weakened and fragmented division, he won a title against Evander Holyfield in 1991, then against Tommy Morrison two years later, losing both on points.
In November 1994, he faced Michael Moorer, who had dethroned Holyfield. In the same shorts he had worn 20 years and six days earlier against Ali, Foreman was lying badly when he caught moor on the chin in the 10th for a blow. At 45 years and 299 days, he was the oldest world champion in heavy goods vehicles.
He was first stripped his WBA title, then his title IBF for refusing to fight nominated opponents, but won three more fights and was still world champion “ Linéaire ” when he lost points against Shannon Briggs in 1997, at the age of 48, and again retired.
He fought 81 times as a professional, winning 76, 68 of them by a KO.
In 1994, he put his name to the “reducing grill machine of George Foreman Lean Mean”, seeming smiling and friendly in television advertisements, becoming a celebrity outside of boxing.
Foreman, who hosted a 1996 television program “Bad Dads”, married four times, removed 10 children and adopting two.
He appointed all his five sons George Edward, explaining that he wanted them to know: “” If one of us goes up, then we all go up together, and if we go down, we all go down! “”
(This story has not been published by NDTV staff and is automatically generated from a unionized flow.)
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