To be classed as a great heavyweight boxer it is often said that a fighter needs to duel with the best combatants of his time. George Foreman, who has died aged 76, unquestionably did that, having had epic world heavyweight title rivalries in the 1970s with Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, beating the latter to win the world heavyweight title in 1973.
However, in some ways his more deserving claim to greatness was an astonishing comeback that saw him become the oldest world heavyweight champion two decades later.
In the 70s Foreman was known as a surly and intimidating figure who blazed a formidable trail. His massive punching power helped him obliterate Frazier in less than two rounds to take the title in Kingston, Jamaica, knocking his opponent down six times in the process.
But he quit boxing aged 28 in 1977 when, after losing to Jimmy Young in San Juan, Puerto Rico, he collapsed in the dressing room and experienced a holy vision, prompting him to turn to God and become a preacher in Houston, close to his Texas home.
When Foreman returned to boxing in 1987, he was reborn as a charming, smiling character who proved his oft-repeated mantra that “age need not be a barrier”.
He was bigger and slower, but infinitely more likable. A return that had first seemed akin to a boxing novelty act slowly became more serious as he worked his way back up the rankings before becoming champion again in 1994 on a never-to-be-forgotten night in Las Vegas, where he knocked out the undefeated champion Michael Moorer.
To be in the crowd that night was an extraordinary experience. By the 10th round the quicker Moorer had boxed his way into a clear points advantage and seemed almost certain to be on his way to victory. But Foreman, by then just two months short of his 46th birthday, was urged by his trainer, Angelo Dundee, to look for the knockout as he was losing by a big margin.
What happened then was almost as indelibly inked into boxing’s history as his defeat against Ali had been in Zaire 20 years earlier. Foreman smashed Moorer to the canvas, where he was counted out before a delirious crowd. He then returned to his corner and knelt in prayer, knowing that his improbable dream had become reality. He was once more world heavyweight champion.
Foreman had lost the title to Ali in 1974 in perhaps the most talked about fight of all time, the Rumble in the Jungle in Kinshasa, Zaire. He went into that contest as a huge favourite,with many experts fearing for the health of the older Ali.
But Ali, himself trained at the time by Dundee, devised a perfect “rope a dope” strategy, leaning back on the ring ropes to prompt Foreman to expend his energy by looking for one big punch to end it. Ali absorbed all that the tiring Foreman could throw at him before producing a series of lightning fast punches to finish the fight in the eighth round.
Foreman would go on to beat Frazier for a second time, and to beat the big punching Ron Lyle in one of the most dramatic fights of the 70s, but wanted no part of boxing after 1977, serving as a minister in a Houston church and supporting a nearby youth centre. He was prompted to return to the ring only when his money began to run short.
Anyone who might have suggested then that Foreman was destined to be the world champion again would surely have fielded serious questions about their sanity. His weight had ballooned to more than 25 stone and, even after months of hard training, the Buddha-like physique of the now shaven-headed Foreman invited derision from those who compared him to the chiselled athlete who had become world champion.
Foreman’s efforts were initially dismissed as a joke by writers and broadcasters alike. But “Big George”, as he was known throughout his boxing career, was deadly serious. He would never again look like the lean athlete who won an Olympic heavyweight gold medal in 1968, before blasting his way to the pinnacle of the professional sport. But he gradually became fitter and, crucially, was a walking proof of the old boxing adage that “the last thing you lose is your punch”.
After racking up wins against opponents who could have been accurately dismissed as bums and has-beens, at the age of 42 he got another title chance in Atlantic City in 1991 against the undisputed champion, Evander Holyfield, a man 14 years his junior. Foreman lost by a wide points decision, and two years later his dreams seemed completely over when he lost a lopsided contest in the then lightly regarded WBO version of the world title against a man 20 years his junior, Tommy Morrison.
By then Foreman was beginning to make substantial amounts of money away from boxing through product endorsements, hitting the jackpot when he was paid a huge sum to have his name added to a kitchen grilling machine that sold in millions.
He admitted to earning up to $8m a month from his Lean Mean Fat-Reducing Grilling Machine, and is estimated to have made more than $200m from the venture in total, significantly more than his ring earnings. He also commentated on boxing for many years for the American cable television network HBO.
Foreman eventually retired from pro boxing for good in 1997, aged 48, with only five defeats in 81 fights and 68 of his 76 victories by knockout, a statistic supporting those who would suggest that he was the hardest punching heavyweight of all time.
He was born in Marshall, Texas. Though his biological father was Leroy Moorehead, he took the name of his stepfather, JD Foreman, a railroad construction worker whom his mother married when he was a small child. He was the fifth of seven children and described himself as “a violent, aggressive boy” who coped with poverty by mugging victims on the streets of Houston before training as a carpenter and bricklayer.
Although his boyhood sporting hero was the celebrated NFL running back Jim Brown of the Cleveland Browns, he was introduced to boxing aged 16 and became Olympic champion in Mexico three years later after only 26 amateur contests.
In later life, with his fifth wife, Mary Joan (nee Martelly), whom he married in 1985, he lived in a mansion on a 300-acre ranch near Houston, where he indulged his passion for cars, estimating that he had “around 60” in a huge purpose-built garage. He also kept many animals, including thoroughbred horses and as many as 20 German Shepherd dogs at any one time.
He is survived by Mary Joan, six daughters, Natalie, Leola, Michi, Georgetta, Isabella and Courtney, five sons, all of whom are named George, 15 grandchildren, three great-grandchildren and his brother Roy. Another daughter, Freeda, died in 2019.
• George Edward Foreman, boxer and entrepreneur, born 10 January 1949; died 21 March 2025
