Heavyweight boxing great George Foreman dead at 76

Former heavyweight champion George Foreman, who fought and lost against Muhammad Ali in boxing’s iconic 1974 “Rumble in the Jungle” before reclaiming the title two decades later, died Friday aged 76, his family announced in a statement.

“With profound sorrow, we announce the passing of our beloved George Edward Foreman Sr, who peacefully departed on March 21, 2025, surrounded by loved ones,” Foreman’s family said in a statement posted on the boxer’s official Instagram page.

"We are grateful for the outpouring of love and prayers, and kindly ask for privacy as we honor the extraordinary life of a man we were blessed to call our own.”

Born in Texas on January 10, 1949, Foreman grew up in Houston. The man who raised him was frequently absent and often drunk. Foreman only found out that J. D. Foreman was not his biological father after he won the world heavyweight when his real father, a decorated Second World War veteran, got in touch.

As an adolescent Foreman flirted with crime and dropped out of school at 16.

“At 13-years-old, George was about 6-foot-2, 200 pounds and the terrorist in the neighbourhood,” his younger brother Roy told the BBC in 2024. “And when you’re bigger and stronger and think you’re better than everyone else, you take things.”

At 16, he took up boxing.

“I wanted to a football player,” Foreman said on his website. “I tried boxing just to show my friends that I wasn’t afraid. Well, 25 fights and one year later, I was an Olympic gold medallist.”

At the Mexico Games in 1968, the 19-year-old Foreman bludgeoned his way to the super-heavyweight gold. As he celebrated his final victory, 10 days after fellow African Americans Tommie Smith and John Carlos had made a black power salute following the 200m track final, Foreman waved an American flag in the ring.

At 6-foot-4 (1.93m), ‘Big George’ was larger and stronger than the other leading heavyweights of the time. He was light on his feet, but slugged his way through the professional ranks, to earn a heavyweight title shot against champion Joe Frazier, demolishing the champion in two rounds.

By the time he fought his third title defence over 15 rounds against Ali in October 1974 in Kinshasa, Foreman was unbeaten in 40 professional bouts. He had won all but three inside the distance and had not needed to develop stamina.

Ali’s ‘rope-a-dope’ tactics, exhausted the big man who lost in eight rounds.

The defeat punctured Foreman’s intimidating aura, not least, in his own mind.

“I just couldn’t believe I’d lost the world title,” he said later. “It was the most embarrassing moment of my life. It went from pride to pity. That’s devastating.”

His campaign for another title shot ended when he lost on points to another contender, Jimmy Young in March 1977 on a hot night in Puerto Rico.