George Edward Foreman died March 21, 2025. He was an American boxer, businessman, preacher, and author. During his 30-year boxing career, “Big George” won two world heavyweight championships and Olympic gold.
Born January 10, 1949, in Houston, Texas, Foreman grew up rough. He dropped out of school and began committing crimes. At age 16, he began changing course. He got a job, earned his high school equivalency diploma, and began boxing. He made the U.S. Olympic team in 1968 and won gold in Mexico City as a teenager over a 29-year-old opponent.
Foreman had frequent success with boxing over the next five years. But people saw him as an aloof, unfriendly athlete.
Jim Lampley is a veteran boxing broadcaster. He worked alongside Foreman for many years. He says that Foreman’s early behavior was an attempt to emulate Sonny Liston, the glowering heavyweight champ of the 1960s.
“At some point somewhere along the way, he realized that wasn’t him,” Lampley says.
Still, Foreman inspired fear and awe as he climbed to the top of the heavyweight division by stopping “Smokin’” Joe Frazier in 1973.
But Foreman’s fearsome aura faded a year later when Muhammad Ali pulled off a bold victory. Many call that “Rumble in the Jungle” the most memorable fight in boxing history.
Then in 1977, Foreman had a near-death experience in a locker room after a fight. He says he felt the fear of death and heard a voice say, “I don’t want your money; I want you!” Foreman believed that voice was God’s. Over the years, Foreman told many that he became a Christian at that time.
The boxing great began preaching—on street corners, on the radio, and then at a church in Houston. He also opened the George Foreman Youth Center in order to help kids in his old neighborhood.
It was raising funds for the center that sent Foreman back to boxing in 1987—after a decade out of the ring.
In 1994, the 45-year-old Foreman became the oldest man ever to win the heavyweight championship. He defeated Michael Moorer—19 years his junior—in an epic upset.
Others have come back to regain boxing titles. But Foreman’s 20 years is easily the longest gap between heavyweight titles.
Few fighters ever had more big moments than Big George. He finished 76-5 with 68 knockouts before moving on to his next career as a genial businessman, pitchman, and occasional actor.
Outside the ring, Foreman was best known as the face of the George Foreman Grill. It launched the same year as his victory over Moorer. The simple cooking machine sold more than 100 million units and made him much wealthier than his sport ever did.
Foreman quit the ring for good in 1997. He settled into a life as a boxing analyst and grill pitchman.
Foreman briefly starred in a sitcom called George in the 1990s and appeared on the reality singing competition The Masked Singer in 2022. Big George Foreman, a faith-based biographical movie based on his life, was released in 2023.
Foreman had 12 children, including five sons who are all famously named George Foreman.
“His contribution to boxing and beyond will never be forgotten,” wrote former heavyweight champ Mike Tyson on social media.
“A devout preacher, a devoted husband, a loving father, and a proud grand- and great-grandfather, he lived a life marked by unwavering faith, humility, and purpose,” Foreman’s family wrote. “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.”
I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds. — Jeremiah 17:10
