Foreman, George

views updated

Foreman, George

January 22, 1948

Born in Marshall, Texas, boxer, minister, and actor George Edward Foreman grew up in a poor Houston neighborhood, where he dropped out of school in the tenth grade, drifted into petty crime and heavy drinking, and gained a reputation as a mean street fighter. In August 1965 he joined the Job Corps, where Charles "Doc" Broadus introduced him to boxing. At the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, Foreman won the gold medal as a heavyweight. After his victory he waved an American flag in the ring, an action that contrasted dramatically with the behavior of two other black athletes at the games, sprinters John Carlos and Tommie Smith, who had protested racial injustice by raising black-gloved fists during the playing of the national anthem.

Foreman turned professional in 1969. He won his first thirty-seven professional fights, and in Kingston, Jamaica, on January 22, 1973, he knocked out the reigning champion, Joe Frazier, in two rounds to take the title. Foreman successfully defended his championship against Jose "King" Roman and Ken Norton, but on October 30, 1974, he lost it to Muhammad Ali in Kinshasa, Zaire. In that fight, billed as the "Rumble in the Jungle," Ali used an unorthodox "rope-a-dope" strategy, allowing Foreman to tire himself out by throwing most of the punches as Ali leaned back against the ropes and protected his head. By the eighth round, Foreman had tired significantly, and Ali was able to knock him out. Foreman won a number of fights in succeeding years, including a second match with Frazier. But he dropped a twelve-round decision to Jimmy Young in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on March 17, 1977, and retired, disheartened.

After his retirement from boxing, Foreman experienced a religious conversion and became a self-ordained evangelical preacher and pastor of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ in Houston. He also straightened out his personal life, which he described as a "total mess," including four failed marriages and a flamboyant lifestyle. In 1984 he established the George Foreman Youth and Community Center in Aldine, Texas.

In 1987, at the age of thirty-nine and badly overweight (267 pounds, compared to 217½ when he beat Frazier), Foreman returned to the ring in what was originally described as an effort to raise funds for his youth center. Many observers found it difficult to take his comeback seriously, but, after beating twenty-four lesser-known opponents, he gained credibility by making a good showing in a close twelve-round loss to Evander Holyfield on April 19, 1991, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. After winning several more fights, Foreman faced Tommy Morrison in a match for the World Boxing Organization title in Las Vegas, Nevada, on June 7, 1993, but lost in a unanimous twelve-round decision. After that fight Foreman's career record stood at seventy-three wins (including sixty-seven knockouts) and four losses. In a stunning reversal Foreman regained the heavyweight crown in 1994, fully twenty-one years after he first won it.

By that time Foreman had become something of a media celebrity. His easygoing and cheerful attitude, his unique appearance (besides his girth, Foreman's shaved head made him easily recognizable), and his unlikely status as a boxer in his forties made Foreman a favorite with many fans. He appeared on television in advertisements for a number of products, and in the fall of 1993 he briefly had his own television program on ABC, a situation comedy called George, in which he played a retired boxer who ran a youth center.

Foreman was stripped of his WBA crown in March 1995 for failing to fight contender Tony Tucker, and he retained his title as IBC champion until June 1995. Following his defeat by Shannon Briggs on November 22, 1997, Foreman dropped out of competition for the heavyweight championship.

In 2003, Foreman was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. That same year, he published a book, George Foreman's Guide to Life, with coauthor Linda Kulman.

See also Ali, Muhammad; Boxing; Frazier, Joe