Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
George Foreman in 2019. Alamy Stock Photo
RIP
US heavyweight boxing legend George Foreman dies aged 76
His family said he died peacefully on Friday.
7.00am, 22 Mar 2025
26.6k
49
US BOXING LEGEND George Foreman has died at the age of 76, his family announced.
He was two-time world heavyweight champion in a boxing career that spanned over two decades, before he hung up his gloves and saw success as an entrepreneur with his George Foreman Grill line.
A post on his Instagram page said he died peacefully on Friday surrounded by family.
“Our hearts are broken,” the post said.
“With profound sorrow, we announce the passing of our beloved George Edward Foreman Sr. who peacefully departed on 21 March 2025 surrounded by loved ones.
“A devout preacher, a devoted husband, a loving father, and a proud grand and great grandfather, he lived a life marked by unwavering faith, humility, and purpose.
“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.
“We are grateful for the outpouring of love and prayers, and kindly ask for privacy as we honour the extraordinary life of a man we were blessed to call our own.”
Tributes
Tributes began to pour in following the news, with former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson saying Foreman’s “contribution to boxing and beyond will never be forgotten”.
Former NBA basketballer Earvin “Magic” Johnson, who won five titles with the Los Angeles Lakers, said it was a “pleasure getting to know (Foreman) not only as a boxer but as a man”.
“I was really sad to hear the news that one of my boxing heroes, George Foreman, passing away,” Johnson said.
“I attended so many of George’s championship fights over his career. He was a knockout artist in the ring, and it was a pleasure getting to know him not only as a boxer but as a man.”
Actor John Cusack said: “Beyond a living legend in the ring – just a wonderful spirit – an incredibly kind generous man – in person. I always remember every encounter with great gratitude – it was an honour to know him.”
George Foreman lands a right hook on Iones Chepulis to win the gold medal at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
Charles Barkley, Hall of Fame NBA player, said the loss “just hurts”.
Advertisement
“I got to know Mr. Foreman a little bit, seeing him at all the boxing matches and I always picked his brain about trying to be an entrepreneur when your career is over,” he said.
“It hurts a lot because he was obviously one of the greatest boxers ever, but just a gentle man, was a pastor. This just hurts.”
Irish boxer Barry McGuigan described Foreman as an “immense fighter” with a “remarkable career”.
“He was such a great human being, such a great fighter, and such a humble guy, so decent and understated but honestly, one of the greatest fighters that I’ve ever seen,” he told Newstalk’s Anton Savage Show.
“At 45 years old winning the World Heavyweight title, I don’t think we’ll ever have another heavyweight champion at that age. We’ve lost a colossal in the great George Foreman.”
Foreman was born in Marshall, Texas in 1949 and endured a troubled childhood, responding to local bullies by becoming, by his own admission, a juvenile delinquent who frequently found himself in trouble with the police.
After dropping out of high school at the age of 16, Foreman enrolled for the local job corps, a decision he credits with helping to turn around his life. It was during a session that he caught a glimpse of an Ali fight against Floyd Patterson, and convinced himself he could become a boxer.
Just over a year after winning his first amateur fight, Foreman won the right to represent the United States in the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. Three straight wins took him through to the gold medal match against Ionas Chepulis, before which Foreman admitted he was “scared”.
Muhammad Ali vs George Foreman in the famous 'Rumble in the Jungle' fight in 1974. Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
He became an Olympic gold medallist that year before claiming his first heavyweight title with a stoppage win over Joe Frazier in 1973.
Rumble in the Jungle
He lost the belt a year later to Muhammad Ali in the infamous ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ bout held in the African nation then known as Zaire.
His second championship came more than two decades later at the age of 45, with a stunning knockout win over Michael Moorer in 1994 making him the oldest heavyweight champion ever.
He retired from the sport in 1997 with a record of 76 wins and just five losses. Sixty-eight of his victories came via knockout.
Foreman found tremendous success in the business world after his retirement, with his popular George Foreman Grill selling in the millions, earning figures which dwarfed his boxing career, and he also evolved into a prominent television celebrity and boxing pundit.
George Foreman with his Lean Mean Grilling Machine. Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
Married five times, Foreman had 12 children, including five boys, all of whom he named George. “I named all my sons George so they would always have something in common,” Foreman said.
“I say to them, if one of us goes up, we all go up. And if one goes down, we all go down together.”
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic.
Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy
here
before taking part.
Money Diaries: An interior designer on €45K living in Leinster
54 mins ago
2.9k
3
News Fix
Here's What Happened Today: Sunday
55 mins ago
1.3k
Poll
Where do you buy most of your groceries?
10 hrs ago
37.9k
107
Your Cookies. Your Choice.
Cookies help provide our news service while also enabling the advertising needed to fund this work.
We categorise cookies as Necessary, Performance (used to analyse the site performance) and Targeting (used to target advertising which helps us keep this service free).
We and our 160 partners store and access personal data, like browsing data or unique identifiers, on your device. Selecting Accept All enables tracking technologies to support the purposes shown under we and our partners process data to provide. If trackers are disabled, some content and ads you see may not be as relevant to you. You can resurface this menu to change your choices or withdraw consent at any time by clicking the Cookie Preferences link on the bottom of the webpage .Your choices will have effect within our Website. For more details, refer to our Privacy Policy.
We and our vendors process data for the following purposes:
Use precise geolocation data. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Store and/or access information on a device. Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development.
Cookies Preference Centre
We process your data to deliver content or advertisements and measure the delivery of such content or advertisements to extract insights about our website. We share this information with our partners on the basis of consent. You may exercise your right to consent, based on a specific purpose below or at a partner level in the link under each purpose. Some vendors may process your data based on their legitimate interests, which does not require your consent. You cannot object to tracking technologies placed to ensure security, prevent fraud, fix errors, or deliver and present advertising and content, and precise geolocation data and active scanning of device characteristics for identification may be used to support this purpose. This exception does not apply to targeted advertising. These choices will be signaled to our vendors participating in the Transparency and Consent Framework.
Manage Consent Preferences
Necessary Cookies
Always Active
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
Targeting Cookies
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
Functional Cookies
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then these services may not function properly.
Performance Cookies
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not be able to monitor our performance.
Store and/or access information on a device 110 partners can use this purpose
Cookies, device or similar online identifiers (e.g. login-based identifiers, randomly assigned identifiers, network based identifiers) together with other information (e.g. browser type and information, language, screen size, supported technologies etc.) can be stored or read on your device to recognise it each time it connects to an app or to a website, for one or several of the purposes presented here.
Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development 142 partners can use this purpose
Use limited data to select advertising 112 partners can use this purpose
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times an ad is presented to you).
Create profiles for personalised advertising 83 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service (such as forms you submit, content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (for example, information from your previous activity on this service and other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (that might include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present advertising that appears more relevant based on your possible interests by this and other entities.
Use profiles to select personalised advertising 83 partners can use this purpose
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on your advertising profiles, which can reflect your activity on this service or other websites or apps (like the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects.
Create profiles to personalise content 38 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service (for instance, forms you submit, non-advertising content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (such as your previous activity on this service or other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (which might for example include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present content that appears more relevant based on your possible interests, such as by adapting the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find content that matches your interests.
Use profiles to select personalised content 34 partners can use this purpose
Content presented to you on this service can be based on your content personalisation profiles, which can reflect your activity on this or other services (for instance, the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects. This can for example be used to adapt the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find (non-advertising) content that matches your interests.
Measure advertising performance 133 partners can use this purpose
Information regarding which advertising is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine how well an advert has worked for you or other users and whether the goals of the advertising were reached. For instance, whether you saw an ad, whether you clicked on it, whether it led you to buy a product or visit a website, etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of advertising campaigns.
Measure content performance 59 partners can use this purpose
Information regarding which content is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine whether the (non-advertising) content e.g. reached its intended audience and matched your interests. For instance, whether you read an article, watch a video, listen to a podcast or look at a product description, how long you spent on this service and the web pages you visit etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of (non-advertising) content that is shown to you.
Understand audiences through statistics or combinations of data from different sources 74 partners can use this purpose
Reports can be generated based on the combination of data sets (like user profiles, statistics, market research, analytics data) regarding your interactions and those of other users with advertising or (non-advertising) content to identify common characteristics (for instance, to determine which target audiences are more receptive to an ad campaign or to certain contents).
Develop and improve services 83 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service, such as your interaction with ads or content, can be very helpful to improve products and services and to build new products and services based on user interactions, the type of audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the development or improvement of user profiles and identifiers.
Use limited data to select content 37 partners can use this purpose
Content presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type, or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times a video or an article is presented to you).
Use precise geolocation data 46 partners can use this special feature
With your acceptance, your precise location (within a radius of less than 500 metres) may be used in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Actively scan device characteristics for identification 27 partners can use this special feature
With your acceptance, certain characteristics specific to your device might be requested and used to distinguish it from other devices (such as the installed fonts or plugins, the resolution of your screen) in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Ensure security, prevent and detect fraud, and fix errors 92 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
Your data can be used to monitor for and prevent unusual and possibly fraudulent activity (for example, regarding advertising, ad clicks by bots), and ensure systems and processes work properly and securely. It can also be used to correct any problems you, the publisher or the advertiser may encounter in the delivery of content and ads and in your interaction with them.
Deliver and present advertising and content 99 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
Certain information (like an IP address or device capabilities) is used to ensure the technical compatibility of the content or advertising, and to facilitate the transmission of the content or ad to your device.
Match and combine data from other data sources 72 partners can use this feature
Always Active
Information about your activity on this service may be matched and combined with other information relating to you and originating from various sources (for instance your activity on a separate online service, your use of a loyalty card in-store, or your answers to a survey), in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Link different devices 53 partners can use this feature
Always Active
In support of the purposes explained in this notice, your device might be considered as likely linked to other devices that belong to you or your household (for instance because you are logged in to the same service on both your phone and your computer, or because you may use the same Internet connection on both devices).
Identify devices based on information transmitted automatically 88 partners can use this feature
Always Active
Your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it automatically sends when accessing the Internet (for instance, the IP address of your Internet connection or the type of browser you are using) in support of the purposes exposed in this notice.
Save and communicate privacy choices 69 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
The choices you make regarding the purposes and entities listed in this notice are saved and made available to those entities in the form of digital signals (such as a string of characters). This is necessary in order to enable both this service and those entities to respect such choices.
have your say