Boxing legend George Foreman dies aged 76

Boxer George Foreman, one of the great second acts in sports, who reclaimed the heavyweight boxing title at age 45, has died aged 76, his family said.

“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,” the family said, describing Mr Foreman in a post on Instagram.

An intimidating, thunderous puncher who lost his first title to Muhammad Ali in their famous ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ in 1974, “Big George” was a more rotund, jovial figure when he knocked out Michael Moorer for his second crown two decades later.

His comeback and the fortune he made selling fat-wicking electric cooking grills made him an icon of self-improvement and success.

Soon after his birth in Marshall, Texas, on 10 January 1949, his family moved to Houston where he and his six siblings were raised by their mother.

Growing up poor in the segregated US south, Mr Foreman dropped out of junior high school and used his size and fists in street robberies.

The Job Corps, part of President Lyndon B Johnson’s “Great Society” reforms, “rescued me from the gutter,” Mr Foreman later wrote.

Through the programme, 16-year-old Foreman moved out of Texas and was encouraged to into boxing.

At age 19 and in his 25th amateur fight, Mr Foreman captured the heavyweight boxing gold medal at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City.

Turning pro, he won 37 straight matches on his way to face reigning champion Joe Frazier in Kingston, Jamaica, winning by technical knockout in round two.

Mr Foreman defended the belt twice more before meeting Ali in Kinshasa, Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in one of the most celebrated boxing matches in history.

Ali had been stripped of his crown seven years prior for refusing to be drafted into the Vietnam War and came into the match a heavy underdog against the bigger, younger champion.

However, for seven rounds, Ali lay against the ropes and fended off Foreman’s clubbing blows, tiring and knocking him out in the eighth round.

“I was one strong heavyweight punching fighter,” Foreman said in 2007. “I was one punching machine, and that was the first time I delivered everything I had and nothing worked.”

The loss devastated Foreman. He took a year off before returning to the ring and then, after a second professional loss, retired in 1977 to become an ordained minister in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

A decade later and considerably heavier at 143kg, Mr Foreman staged an unlikely return to the ring to raise money for a youth center he founded in Texas.

He went on to win 24 straight matches, gradually slimming along the way, before losing to Evander Holyfield in a 12-round decision in 1991.

Three years later, he knocked out undefeated southpaw Michael Moorer to become the oldest ever heavyweight champion at age 45.

Mr Foreman’s last match was in 1997, ending his career with a professional record of 76 wins including 68 knockouts, almost double that of Ali, and five losses.

The boxer was married four times in the 1970s and 1980s.

In 1985, he married for the fifth time to Mary Joan Martelly, with whom he remained for the rest of his life. He had five sons – all called George – five biological daughters, and two adopted daughters.

Throughout the 1990s and after retirement, he was an enthusiastic pitchman for various products, most notably an electric grill from home appliance maker Salton Inc.

In 1999, the company paid Mr Foreman and his partners $137.5 million to put his name on the grill and other goods.