George Edward Foreman (born January 10, 1949) is an American former professional boxer, entrepreneur, minister and author. In boxing, he competed between 1967 and 1997 and was nicknamed "Big George". He is a two-time world heavyweight champion and an Olympic gold medalist. As an entrepreneur, he is known for the George Foreman Grill.
After a troubled childhood, Foreman took up amateur boxing and won a gold medal in the heavyweight division at the 1968 Summer Olympics. Having turned professional the next year, he won the world heavyweight title with a stunning second-round knockout of then-undefeated Joe Frazier in 1973. He defended the belt twice before suffering his first professional loss to Muhammad Ali in the iconic Rumble in the Jungle in 1974. Unable to secure another title opportunity, Foreman retired after a loss to Jimmy Young in 1977.
Following what he referred to as a religious epiphany, Foreman became an ordained Christian minister. Ten years later he announced a comeback, and in 1994 at age 45 won the unified WBA, IBF, and lineal heavyweight championship titles by knocking out 26-year-old Michael Moorer. He dropped the WBA belt rather than face his mandatory title defense soon after, and following a single successful title defense against Axel Schulz, Foreman relinquished his IBF title as well on June 28, 1995. At 46 years and 169 days old, he was the oldest world heavyweight champion in history. Foreman is the oldest to ever win the world heavyweight boxing championship of major honors, and the second-oldest in any weight class after Bernard Hopkins (at light heavyweight). He retired in 1997 at the age of 48, with a final record of 76 wins (68 knockouts) and 5 losses.
Foreman has been inducted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame and International Boxing Hall of Fame. The International Boxing Research Organization rates Foreman as the eighth-greatest heavyweight of all time. In 2002, he was named one of the 25 greatest fighters of the past 80 years by The Ring. The Ring ranked him as the ninth-greatest puncher of all time. He was a ringside analyst for HBO's boxing coverage for 12 years until 2004. Outside boxing, he is a successful entrepreneur and known for his promotion of the George Foreman Grill, which has sold more than 100 million units worldwide. In 1999, he sold the commercial rights to the grill for $138 million.
Early life
George Foreman was born in Marshall, Texas. He grew up in the Fifth Ward community of Houston, Texas, with six siblings. Although he was raised by J. D. Foreman, whom his mother had married when George was a small child, his biological father was Leroy Moorehead. By his own admission in his autobiography, George was a troubled youth. He dropped out of school at the age of 15 and spent time as a mugger. At age 16, Foreman had a change of heart and convinced his mother to sign him up for the Job Corps after seeing an ad for the Corps on TV. As part of the Job Corps, Foreman earned his GED and trained to become a carpenter and bricklayer. After moving to Pleasanton, California, with the help of a supervisor, he began to train. Foreman was interested in football and idolized Jim Brown, but gave it up for boxing.
