RIP George Foreman! The boxer and grill salesman died Friday at age 76. As a boxer, Foreman was nicknamed Big George, competing between 1967 and 1997. He was a 2-time world heavyweight champion and an Olympic gold medalist, winning the heavyweight division at the 1968 Summer Olympics. He turned professional the next year, winning the heavyweight title after knocking out the then-undefeated Joe Frazier in 1973. He defended the belt twice before suffering his first professional loss to Muhammad Ali in the Rumble in the Jungle in 1974. Unable to secure another title opportunity, Foreman retired after a loss to Jimmy Young in 1977.
After what he called a born again experience, Foreman became an ordained Christian minister. Ten years later he announced a comeback and in 1994 at the age of 45 won the unified WBE, IBF, and lineal heavyweight championship titles. He was the oldest world heavyweight champion in history. He retired in 1997 at the age of 48 with a final record of 76 wins (68 knockouts) and 5 losses.
When Foreman returned from retirement, he credited his success to his healthy eating. He was approached by Salton, Inc., which was looking for a spokesperson for its fat-reducing grill. The Lean Mean Fat-Reducing Grilling Machine was introduced in 1994 and promoted with memorable infomercials featuring Foreman. Over 100 million units have been sold since it was launched. Foreman never revealed how much he made from the endorsement, but Salton, Inc. paid him $138 million in 1999 to buy out the right to use his name. Before that, Foreman got 40% of the profits on each grill sold, earning him $4.5 million a month at its peak. It’s estimated he made a total of over $200 million from the endorsement, substantially more than he ever made as a boxer.
Foreman had 12 children, 5 sons and 7 daughters. His sons are George Jr., George III, George IV, George V, and George VI. According to his website, Foreman explained “I named all my sons George Edward Foreman so they would always have something in common. I say to them, ‘if one of us goes up, then we all go up together, and one of goes down, we all go down together!'”
Foreman was inducted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame and International Boxing Hall of Fame. More recently, he competed on the 8th season of The Masked Singer. Learn more here.