George Foreman

Summary

George Foreman won Olympic gold in 1968 and the world heavyweight championship in 1973, demolishing Joe Frazier to take the title. He was a feared, brooding puncher until Muhammad Ali outlasted him in the 1974 Rumble in the Jungle, and a 1977 loss to Jimmy Young, followed by a religious experience, pushed him out of boxing entirely.

For about a decade Foreman was a preacher, not a fighter. During that time much of the money he had earned in the ring disappeared into failed investments and tax problems, leaving the former champion in financial difficulty as he approached middle age.

In 1987 Foreman returned to boxing, overweight and well into his late thirties, but with a transformed public image: genial, funny, and self-deprecating, the opposite of his menacing younger self. The comeback culminated on November 5, 1994, when, at age 45, he knocked out Michael Moorer to become the oldest heavyweight champion in history.

The larger fortune, however, came from a kitchen appliance. The George Foreman Grill, which carried his name and persona, sold in enormous numbers, and in 1999 the manufacturer Salton paid him a reported $137 million to buy out his name rights, on top of years of royalties, a payday that dwarfed everything he had earned in the ring.

Timeline

The First Fortune

George Foreman grew up poor in Houston's Fifth Ward and found boxing through a Job Corps program. At the 1968 Mexico City Olympics he won the heavyweight gold medal, stopping the Soviet Union's Jonas Cepulis in the second round, and turned professional soon after, building a record on raw, intimidating punching power.

On January 22, 1973, in Kingston, Jamaica, Foreman challenged the undefeated heavyweight champion Joe Frazier. A heavy underdog, he knocked Frazier down six times in two rounds to win the title in a shockingly one-sided fight, announced by Howard Cosell's repeated cry of "Down goes Frazier." He defended the belt and was regarded as nearly unbeatable.

That aura ended on October 30, 1974, in Kinshasa, Zaire, when Muhammad Ali used the rope-a-dope to absorb Foreman's punches before stopping him in the eighth round of the Rumble in the Jungle. Foreman fought on, but the loss marked the beginning of the end of his first career.

The Fall

After the Ali defeat Foreman kept fighting, but in March 1977 he lost a twelve-round decision to Jimmy Young in the heat of San Juan, Puerto Rico, gassing out late. In the dressing room afterward he had what he described as a profound religious experience. He walked away from boxing, became an ordained Christian minister, and devoted himself to preaching and a youth center in Houston.

For roughly a decade he did not fight at all. But the fortune he had earned in the ring did not survive the years out of it. By his own and contemporary accounts, failed investments and tax troubles, including problems with the IRS, eroded his money, and the financial pressure of supporting his family and his ministry mounted.

The man who had once earned millions for a single championship fight found himself, in his late thirties, needing income. That financial reality, as much as any sporting ambition, drove the decision that would define his second act: a return to the ring after ten years away, when most assumed his boxing life was long over.

The Comeback

Foreman returned to boxing in 1987, heavier and balding, and leaned into it. Where the young Foreman had been silent and menacing, the older one was warm, funny, and openly self-deprecating about his age and his appetite, charming audiences and sponsors as he worked his way back up the heavyweight ranks against a string of opponents.

The payoff came on November 5, 1994, at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Challenging the 26-year-old, undefeated champion Michael Moorer, the 45-year-old Foreman trailed on the cards before landing a short right hand in the tenth round that knocked Moorer out. He became the oldest man ever to win the heavyweight championship and the first to regain a version of the title some twenty years after losing it, wearing the same red trunks he had worn against Ali.

The far larger fortune followed from his rehabilitated image. His name and grinning persona were attached to a lean-grilling electric appliance, the George Foreman Grill, which became a runaway hit. By his peak he was reportedly earning millions per month in royalties, and in 1999 the manufacturer Salton paid him a reported $137 million, structured as roughly $127 million in cash plus stock, to buy out the rights to his name. Combined with earlier royalties, his earnings from the grill were widely estimated at well over $200 million, far more than he ever made boxing.

The Turnaround

Legacy

Foreman became one of the rare athletes whose post-sport earnings overwhelmingly exceeded their in-ring income. The grill that bore his name reportedly sold in the tens of millions of units worldwide and turned a comeback story into a lasting business franchise.

His 1994 knockout of Michael Moorer remains a benchmark for athletic longevity, and his record as the oldest heavyweight champion stood as a measure against which later veteran fighters were judged. He also wrote books, ran youth programs, and remained a familiar, good-humored television presence for decades.

George Foreman died on March 21, 2025, at the age of 76. He is remembered as much for the second act, the genial older champion and the entrepreneur who outearned his prime, as for the fearsome young puncher who once flattened Joe Frazier.

Lessons

References

• George Foreman Wikipedia
• George Foreman becomes oldest heavyweight champ HISTORY
• Michael Moorer vs. George Foreman Wikipedia
• George Foreman Grill Wikipedia
• Boxing legend George Foreman dies aged 76 Olympics.com