George Foreman: The Life and Legacy of a Boxing Legend (1949–2025)

George Edward “Big George” Foreman, professional boxer, pastor, author, entrepreneur, and two-time heavyweight champion of the world, was born on January 10, 1949, in Marshall, Texas, to Nancy Ree (Nelson). George’s mother married J. D. Foreman, the man George considered to be his father. The Foreman family was recorded on the 1950 federal census in Houston. George did not learn until he was an adult that Leroy Moorehead was actually his biological father.

George Foreman grew up in the Fifth Ward of Houston. A self-professed tough kid, he spent his early years fighting, mugging, and brawling and eventually dropped out of school in the ninth grade. While on this dangerous career path, Forman’s life found new direction due to President Lyndon B. Johnson’s “War on Poverty.” Foreman joined the Job Corps, where he earned his GED and was sent to work in California. In this program, he met Charles “Doc” Broadus, his Job Corps counselor and a boxing coach. Under Broadus’s instruction, Foreman’s life changed.

As a boxer, Foreman had a successful amateur career. The culmination came at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City when he defeated Jonas Capulis (of Lithuania) to win the gold medal in the heavyweight boxing category. The lasting image of Foreman in the games came as he waved an American flag in the ring following his victory. In 1969 Foreman turned professional. A heavy hitter, by 1972 his record stood at thirty-seven wins and zero losses. Thirty-five of his thirty-seven victories were by knockout. This success caused the World Boxing Council and the World Boxing Association to both rank Foreman as the number one challenger in the world.

On January 22, 1973, Foreman fought Joe Frazier in Kingston, Jamaica, for the heavyweight title. In the fight dubbed “The Sunshine Showdown,” Foreman knocked Frazier down six times on the way to a second round knockout. With the victory, Foreman became the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world.

Foreman successfully defended his championship title twice in the next year, once against Jose Roman and once against Ken Norton. Then, on October 30, 1974, Foreman faced Muhammad Ali in the “Rumble in the Jungle” in Kinshasa, Zaire. Ali, who recently returned to boxing after being stripped of his titles for refusing induction into the United States Army because of religious objections to the war in Vietnam, entered the match a significant underdog.  In the fight, though, Ali used his “rope-a-dope” strategy to tire out the hard hitting Foreman. As a result, Foreman lost the match and the title by knockout in the eighth round.

Following the loss, Foreman took off the entire 1975 year. Upon his return to the ring, he won his first five fights but then lost to Jimmy Young by decision in March 1977. The loss to Young brought major changes to his life. In the locker room afterwards, Foreman, suffering from heat exhaustion, had a religious experience. He became a born-again Christian, dedicated his life to Christ, and quit boxing. 

In 1978 Foreman became an ordained minister. Two years later, in 1980 in Houston, he founded the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ and served as the church’s pastor. He expanded his ministry in Houston in 1984 and opened the George Foreman Youth and Community Center. Connected to his church, the center sought to help Houston area at-risk children who needed direction. Foreman’s ministry provided positive support for the members of the community, but  by the end of the decade, the center was in financial difficulty. Instead of closing the center he chose to return to the boxing ring as a way to raise the needed money. 

As a result, on March 9, 1987, Foreman faced Steve Zouski after a ten-year retirement. In the fight, Foreman won by technical knockout (TKO). He continued to fight and won twenty-four straight contests—twenty-two of them by knockout. In his return, Foreman received considerable media attention because of his age (being more than forty years old) and extended time off.  He also developed a large fan following based on his positive personality and his physique that was not as trim as in his younger days. All of the attention, combined with his success in the ring, allowed Foreman to receive a shot at the heavyweight title. In the match on April 19, 1991, Foreman lost to undefeated Evander Holyfield. The forty-two-year-old Foreman, though, provided a source of inspiration to his fans. He lasted the full twelve rounds and lost only on the judges’ decision. He similarly went twelve rounds in a title match that he lost to Tommy Morrison in 1993.

After taking a year off, Foreman returned to the ring for another shot at the title. This time, on November 5, 1994, he won, knocking out champion Michael Moorer in the tenth round. The victory made Foreman, at age forty-five, the oldest fighter ever to win the heavyweight title. Also, the twenty years between championships marked the longest stretch between titles. Foreman gave up his titles in 1995 and then, after a loss to Shannon Briggs in 1997, permanently retired from boxing at the age of forty-eight. Foreman finished his boxing career with a record of seventy-six victories (sixty-eight were knockouts) and five losses. 

In retirement, Foreman became even busier and more recognizable than during his fight career. He was a popular pitchman for several companies, including Meineke Car Care Centers, McDonald’s, and Nike. He also wrote more than a dozen books, including a couple of autobiographies, cookbooks, and self-help books, such as By George: The Autobiography of George Foreman (with Joel Engel, 1995), God in My Corner (with Ken Abraham, 2000), Great Grilling Recipes! The Next Grilleration (2004), Going the Extra Smile (2007), and Knockout Entrepreneur (with Ken Abraham, 2009). He became best-known, though, when he associated his name with the George Foreman Electric Grill. Using a new medium, the infomercial, Foreman helped sell millions of the “lean mean fat-reducing machines.”

In his personal life, Foreman married five times: Adrienne Calhoun (1971–74), Cynthia Lewis (1977–79), Sharon Goodson (1981–82), Andrea Skeete (1982–85), and Mary Martelly (1985–). Foreman also had twelve children: Michi, George Jr., Georgetta, Freeda, George III, Natalie, Leola, George IV, George V, George VI, Isabella, and Courtney.

 Foreman was inducted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame, International Boxing Hall of Fame, and Texas Sports Hall of Fame. Furthermore, in 2002, Ring Magazine named him one of the top twenty-five fighters of the past eighty years. In addition to his many business interests, Foreman worked as a commentator on World Championship Boxing on HBO. He was also a motivational speaker. He had a ranch in his birthplace of Marshall where he raised horses and Black Angus cattle.

George Foreman passed away from natural causes on March 21, 2025, in Houston. He was buried in Paradise North Cemetery in that city.