George Foreman, the two-time world heavyweight boxing champion who earned the title of being one of the great second acts in sports, recently passed away at only 76, leaving the world devastated at his loss. Throughout his life, the master puncher had ventured across numerous fields and served as a professional boxer, entrepreneur, minister, and even author.
Yet, the one thing he has long been famed for—and will forever be renowned for, for sure—is none other than his iconic boxing career, which had him reclaiming the heavyweight boxing title after coming out of retirement. But his life in the ring wasn’t always easy, as Foreman had to live the Rocky story before Sylvester Stallone could bring it on the screens through Rocky Balboa.
George Foreman, the old man who came out of retirement to win
“Big George,” the stocky, jovial figure who initially used his big frame and fists in street robberies after dropping out of junior high school while living poorly in Houston, saw quite a lot of the world after becoming a part of the Job Corps program at 16. Soon after, George Foreman moved out of Texas to channel his rage and growing size into boxing.
In 1968, in his 25th amateur fight when he was only 19, Foreman won the heavyweight boxing gold medal at the Olympics in Mexico City. Turning into a professional, he went on to win a whopping 37 straight matches as he headed to face and defeat the then-undefeated Joe Frazier in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1973, winning by technical knockout in round two.
That wasn’t all. After this stunning win, the undefeated and undisputed heavyweight champion continued to flourish, defending the belt twice until he met Muhammad Ali in the ring Kinshasa, Zaire, in their iconic Rumble in the Jungle in 1974. On October 30, at the 20th of May Stadium, he suffered his first professional loss as Ali won by knockout in the eighth round.
While that one match is regarded among the most celebrated boxing matches in history, the experience simply devastated Foreman to the core—so much so that he took a year off. He confessed to Reuters in 2007, “I was one strong heavyweight punching fighter. I was one punching machine, and that was the first time I delivered everything I had and nothing worked.”
When he returned to the ting back again, however, Foreman was once again slated to face defeat as he failed to secure another title opportunity, losing to Jimmy Young during their match in 1977. All of these turns of events eventually led him to retirement after he became ill in his dressing room following the fight. But that wasn’t all.
After going through what he described as a near-death experience that had him going from being non-religious to a firm believer in god, he became a born-again Christian, dedicating the next decade of his life to God. He became an ordained minister of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ in Houston and devoted himself to his family and congregation.
During this retirement period of his becoming a preacher, he also made a fortune by selling “mean, lean” fat-wicking electric cooking grills that won over ubiquitous late-night TV spots. But this wasn’t defeat, for Foreman was soon to make his comeback ten years later in a considerably bulkier frame as, at 315 lbs (143 kg), he returned to the ring in 1987.
At age 38, in his unlikely return to the ring that was done to raise money for a youth center he founded in Texas, he won 24 straight matches, gradually slimming along the way. Though he lost to Evander Holyfield in a 12-round decision in 1991 in a historic round of boxing, Foreman countered by going on to knock out undefeated southpaw Michael Moorer in 1994.
At 45, on November 5 in Las Vegas, Nevada, in the same red trunks that he had worn in his title loss to Muhammad Ali 20 years earlier, Foreman won the world heavyweight championship once again, regaining the title he had lost to Muhammad Ali two decades before, becoming the oldest ever world heavyweight champion at his age.
While losing to Ali broke him, George Foreman went on to become close friends with him
Since it was his fight with Muhammad Ali which served as his first professional loss where he failed to defend his championship, it was only understandable that George Foreman was left devastated when he was defeated. But while it instilled rage and the urge for revenge in him at first, his becoming a preacher during retirement helped with that.
He revealed in his interview with Yahoo! Entertainment about how much he wanted to win against Ali after his loss: “Well, at first, he was a likable fellow, but then when it’s time to fight him, he was OK. Boy, when I lost to Ali, I was devastated. All I wanted was revenge, to get him into the ring and destroy him.” But just when he was about to do that, a lot changed.
To say the least, life made his ring-enemy one of his closest friends. As Foreman continued to explain, “Just when I was about to do it, something happened into my life, I found salvation. I found another chance to live and got an acquaintance with God himself, and Muhammad Ali became the most wonderful friend I ever had in this life. [We had] a close, close relationship.”
As for his take on Rocky, the sixth installment of which was partially inspired by his own comeback in boxing, Foreman had a rather shocking confession as he admitted he didn’t think he could have been able to beat Sylvester Stallone in the ring. Why? Because “His script,” as Foreman said with a smile back then, “was all about beating all of us.” And damn right he was.
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