George Foreman left the world a better place when the two-time world heavyweight champion, Olympic gold medalist, entrepreneur, pastor, loving family man, and patriot passed away Friday at the age of 76.
“Our hearts are broken,” the family wrote on Instagram. “With profound sorrow, we announce the passing of our beloved George Edward Foreman Sr., who peacefully departed on March 21, 2025, surrounded by loved ones.”
Foreman was born to J.D. and Nancy Foreman on January 10, 1949, in Marshall, Texas, to a family of seven children and was a “mugger and a brawler” in the streets of Houston’s Fifth Ward by age 15, according to his personal biography. His mother hid the identity of his father from George, which led to the boxer giving all five of his sons his own name – George Edward Foreman — “so that none would ever be in doubt as to who the identity of their father was,” CBS Sports said of the Olympian, who is also father to daughters Natalie, Leola, Michi, Georgetta, and the late Freeda.
When asked why he gave the same name to all five sons, Foreman explained, “I wanted them to have something in common … I tell them if one goes up, we all go up. If one gets in trouble, we’re all in trouble,” People reported, noting that in a 2021 interview the boxing legend said he tells his children, “Either live up to the name or change it”:
He also told CBN the same year that his children were “the one thing I’m most proud of.” He added, “They’ve gone on, some of them, to stand the test, to get college education, and that’s the hardest thing in the world to achieve; but most of all they’re good parents, and that’s what I’m proud of.”
Foreman left a legacy that will for certain be a challenge to live up to. After pulling himself out of poverty and crime by joining the Job Corps at age 16, Foreman’s athletic talent was encouraged by Job Corps counselor and boxing coach Doc Broaddus, and by age 19 Foreman had won the gold medal at the Mexico City 1968 Olympic Games, the Christian Post reported.
The next year, 1969, Foreman went pro, winning 13 fights in his first year, including seven KOs and three TKOs. He went on to win the world heavyweight title in 1973, beating Joe Frazier, and came back 20 years later, at age 45, to win the title a second time against undefeated 26-year-old heavyweight champ Michael Moorer. Foreman won a total of 76 fights during his career, including 68 KOs and only 5 losses.
Foreman’s career is highlighted by two iconic fights, one against Joe Frazier in 1973, who had just bested Muhammad Ali in “The Fight of the Century” in 1971, and the second fighting Ali in “The Rumble in the Jungle” in 1974.
In an interview with ABC13’s Melanie Lawson, Foreman spoke of the close friendship that he, Frazier, and Ali shared, after Frazier’s death in 2011, and Ali’s death in 2016:
I remember Joe Frazier slipped away, and I thought, ‘We’ll never be the same again.’ Then losing Mohamed Ali, I call that, that was the greatest piece when we lost him. Now, I don’t know what to do. I’m out here alone.
Members of the sports community remembered Foreman on Friday, posting to social media.
“His contribution to boxing and beyond will never be forgotten,” Mike Tyson wrote, posting pictures of himself and Foreman:
“I’m totally heartbroken with news of my dear friend of more than 35 years George Foreman passing away. I’m finding it difficult to deal with. I’ll collect my thoughts and have more to say soon about a man that I (and so many others) loved and respected,” said legendary ring announcer Michael Buffer, who also posted a photo:
I’m totally heartbroken with news of my dear friend of more than 35 years George Foreman passing away.
— Michael Buffer (@Michael_Buffer) March 22, 2025
I’m finding it difficult to deal with.
I’ll collect my thoughts and have more to say soon about a man that I (and so many others) loved and respectedpic.twitter.com/MYjFrrTCmk
Former NBA star Scottie Pippen posted a photo of one of Foreman’s wins, and said, “Rest in peace, George Foreman. Your legacy lives on, champ”:
Rest in peace, George Foreman. Your legacy lives on, champ.
— Scottie Pippen (@ScottiePippen) March 22, 2025pic.twitter.com/7v5XBSZfTi
Football great Robert Griffin III posted a video montage of some of Foreman’s greatest KOs and said, “Rest in Peace to the LEGENDARY George Foreman who passed away at 76. More than just a boxing World HeavyweightChamp, Olympic Gold Medalist and George Foreman Grill maker. He was a Man of God, a Preacher and the embodiment of Power. Prayers up for Big George and his family”:
Rest in Peace to the LEGENDARY George Foreman who passed away at 76. More than just a boxing World HeavyweightChamp, Olympic Gold Medalist and George Foreman Grill maker. He was a Man of God, a Preacher and the embodiment of Power. Prayers up for Big George and his family
— Robert Griffin III (@RGIII) March 22, 2025pic.twitter.com/ygvh1ulhFm
President Donald Trump posted a message on his Truth Social page, honoring the boxing legend by saying, “He was something really Special, but above all, he was a Great Person, with a personality that was bigger than life. I knew him well, and he will be missed.” The Trump War Room X account posted a photo of Trump and Foreman together:
RIP George Foreman
pic.twitter.com/3OIW0xwdQS
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) March 22, 2025
Foreman has spoken highly of President Trump, telling Fox News in 2017, after Trump’s first presidential victory, that “sometimes people win because they’re winners”:
The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute posted a photo of then-California Gov. Reagan and Foreman in 1973, and said, “Rest in peace, George Foreman. Then-Governor Ronald Reagan is pictured celebrating with the heavyweight champion in 1973, in Sacramento, CA”:
Foreman will also be remembered for his deep religious beliefs, and served God by becoming an ordained minister in 1978. The boxing champ found The Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, an evangelical church in Houston, Texas, in 1980, and founded the George Foreman Youth and Community Center, a non-denominational place for kids who need direction, in 1984.
The boxing champ said he found God in 1977 after a near-death experience in his changing room in Puerto Rico, after losing a fight to heavyweight boxer Jimmy Young. The Indian Express detailed the encounter:
Back in 1977, he was in the change room, having lost to Jimmy Young. “I was in a pool of sweat, blood, my face was swollen when I heard a voice, ‘You might as well die now’.” It was his own voice. The dark thoughts wouldn’t stop. “I couldn’t shake them off.” The blood trickled down his temple, “like a crown of thorns”. He began to babble. His team of handlers huddled in fear. “It were the passages from the Bible and I suddenly shouted out, ‘Jesus Christ is coming alive in me! Hallelujah! I am clean. Hallelujah!’ I felt like I was born again. The old Foreman died that day,” he said.
Watch the interview:
“It doesn’t matter what you achieve, what you accomplish in this life, the most important thing is to keep your eye on the true prize, and that’s serving God” Foreman told the Christian Post in 2023, and continued:
Find God, have faith in God. It doesn’t matter what happened, believe all things are possible. Don’t ever give up on possibility and your life can be turned and changed for the better.
The boxing great is not ashamed of his devotion to God, and is also not ashamed to love America. “Don’t leave it; Love it,” Foreman said in a July 4, 2021, post on X, accompanied by a photo from his Olympic win:
For about 54 years, people have ask me not to keep saying “I love America” Well I do and I’m not ashamed. Don’t leave it; Love it. Happy 4th of July.
Foreman’s biography notes that, after his 1968 Olympic gold medal victory in Mexico City, the champ “got extra attention when he brandished an American flag after his win”:
There was a big element of patriotism in what I did; being in the Olympics, you couldn’t help but love your country more than before … But I meant it in a way that was much bigger than ordinary patriotism. It was about identity. An American — that’s who I was. I was waving the flag as much for myself as for the country. I was letting everyone know who I was and at the same time saying that I was proud to be an American.
After returning home from the Mexico City games, however, “some people were unhappy that he didn’t emulate Tommie Smith and John Carlos, two other athletes who became infamous that year for raising a radical black power fist during their medal ceremony,” Breitbart News’s Warner Todd Huston reported in 2021. According to the report, “In 2018, Foreman told The Undefeated that the criticism made him an angry man”:
“From then on, anyone who came up to me and might say the same thing, they were only seconds away from getting [the glare], man. I carried a chip on my shoulder. It turned into anger. I changed. My face changed into a sword. It was fierce, I wasn’t playin’,” he said.
“There always will be a place for protest. Once you find a country that does not have protests, then you just need to get on a boat and go somewhere else.”
“When you don’t have protests, or people making statements, get out. There is a place for those guys,” he said. “But, understandably, I am in love with the national anthem, and wavin’ that flag. I love that stuff. But I also love the fact that I live in a place where my kids tell me some of the most foolish stuff I’ve ever heard [and are permitted to do so]. Sooner or later, if we are the country, we say we are, we can handle it.”
Later in life, Foreman followed the American Dream and became an entrepreneur, introducing the famous George Foreman Lean Mean Fat-Reducing Grilling Machine, which “launched in 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,” Breitbart News reported.
WATCH:
“Big George,” as he was lovingly called, will be remembered as 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,” his family wrote on their Instagram post.
“So many people helped me in life,” Foreman said in 2023. “I didn’t know that. I thought I was doing so much … but there are so many good people in my life.”
