The former heavyweight boxing champion George Foreman, known as his gregarious personality as his vicious right hook, died on Friday. He was 76 years old.
Twice heavyweight champion, he also won gold at the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games and then saw success, in his career after boxing, throwing the grid of the now desired countertop that bears his name.
Foreman’s family announced his death in an Instagram publication.
The retired Pro-Boxer George Foreman arrives for the world premiere of “Big George Foreman: The Milaculous Story of the Once and Future Heavyweight World Champion”, in Regal La Live in Los Angeles, on April 26, 2023.
Michael Tran/AFP through Getty Images
“A devout preacher, a devout husband, a loving father and a proud and great -grandfather, lived a life marked by faith, humility and unwavering purpose,” the statement said. “A humanitarian, an Olympic and twice heavyweight champion of the world, 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.”
His family did not provide any cause of death.
George Foreman gets the blow against Lou Savarese during the fight at the Convention Center, Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Ring magazine through Getty Images, Archive
Born on January 10, 1949, Foreman was the fifth of seven children and grew “in the hardest neighborhood of Houston”, he wrote in his book “Guide of the life of George Foreman: how to get up from the canvas when life breaks it up”, which was published in 2003. I trusted my size and my fists to get closer. “
In the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, Foreman, then 19, had already developed what he would call his “demolition ball fists” and defeated the Soviet opponent Jonas Cepulis. The referee had to stop the fight before the end of the second round.
Foreman won his first heavyweight title to only 24 years with an impressive knockout of the then ineffective world champion Joe Frazier in 1973.
Analyzed as the rumble in the Jungle, Foreman’s most famous fight ended in his first professional defeat against Muhammad Ali in October 1974. He understood the heavyweight title in the defeat by knockout.
But he would recover his belt after a 10 -year retirement in a fight in 1994 against Michael Moorer at age 45.
George Foreman demonstrates its grill range to help the British Heart Foundation in Trafalgar Square, London, England-20.10.06 (photo of Rune Hellestad/Corbis through Getty Images)
Rune Hellestad – Corbis/Corbis through Getty Images
In the entrepreneur entrepreneur, Foreman saw success in the 1990s that promotes the “medium fat reducing grill machine of George Foreman”, a basic element in the infomercials of TV and the homemade shopping channels, which was known for its limited and inclined cooking surface that was designed to allow the fat to slide from the grill.
“There is hardly a single lesson that you have learned in life that was not in the difficult way … Everyone in life goes for a difficult time at some point, but you cannot let that define who you are,” he wrote in his 2003 book. “What defines you is how you return from those problems and what is in life to smile.”
