George Edward Foreman
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George Foreman shocked the world on November 5, 1994, when at age 45 he knocked out undefeated champion Michael Moorer to reclaim the heavyweight title. He won Olympic gold in 1968 and dominated the division in the 1970s until his upset loss to Muhammad Ali in 1974. After retiring and becoming a preacher, he made a comeback in the late 1980s, eventually becoming the oldest heavyweight champion in history.
Names, aliases, and relatives of George Foreman — birth name, kin, and personal ties.
George Foreman by the numbers — life, work, and family.
George Foreman — early life, career, personal life, and legacy.
Dropping out of Wheatley High School at age 15 in 1964, George Foreman was in constant trouble with the law until the U.S. Department of Labor’s Job Corps turned his life around. He was born on January 10, 1949 in Marshall, Texas, and at six months old his family moved to Houston’s Fifth Ward. There he started boxing as an amateur.
Foreman captured a gold medal at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City after only 24 amateur fights. Turning professional under trainer Dick Saddler, he won his first 40 fights, 37 by knockout, including 24 consecutive knockouts. In 1973 he destroyed undefeated Joe Frazier in two rounds to win the world heavyweight title, knocking Frazier down six times. Foreman defended against Jose King Roman and Ken Norton before facing Muhammad Ali on October 30, 1974 in Zaire; he was knocked out in the eighth round. After a loss to Jimmy Young in 1977, Foreman retired and became a preacher for ten years.
He returned to boxing in 1987 at age 38 to raise money for his church, winning 18 straight by knockout. In 1991 he fought Evander Holyfield for the title, lasting 12 rounds in a decision loss. On November 5, 1994, Foreman knocked out undefeated champion Michael Moorer in the tenth round to become the oldest heavyweight champion at age 45. He made several successful defenses before losing a controversial decision to Shannon Briggs.
Foreman was married five times: Adrienne Calhoun from December 24, 1971 to February 13, 1974; Cynthia Lewis from October 6, 1977 to August 3, 1979; Sharon Goodson from September 15, 1981 to April 23, 1982; Andrea Skeete from April 28, 1982 to February 4, 1985; and Mary Foreman from March 25, 1985 until his death. He fathered eleven children, including sons he named George Edward Foreman III through VI so each would know his father. As an adult, Foreman learned that his biological father was Leroy Moorehead, and he later officiated at Moorehead’s funeral. His daughter Freeda Foreman and son George Foreman III also worked in boxing.
Inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2003, Foreman was ranked the fourth greatest heavyweight by The Ring magazine in 1998. His 1994 comeback victory over Michael Moorer at age 45 remains one of the sport’s most iconic moments. Outside the ring, Foreman became a successful entrepreneur through the George Foreman Grill, promoted on QVC. He also served as a priest and authored several books, including By George: The Autobiography of George Foreman.
Browse the complete filmography of George Foreman — every film, TV show, and documentary credit, ranked by popularity.
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Every award, honor, and recognition received by George Foreman — Grammys, hall-of-fame inductions, civic honors, lifetime achievements.
George Foreman's bibliography — every authored, edited, and co-written book, ranked by edition count.
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A wall of memorable lines from George Foreman — lyrics, interviews, and off-the-cuff remarks captured over a lifetime.
On His Boxing Comeback, I Didn’t Come Back for the Money. I Just Got Sick of Beating People up for Free.
I Called Them All George Because I Was Worried That When I Was Older I Might Suffer from Memory Loss. I Would Have Called My Five Girls George, Too, but My Wife Said She Thought That Was Overkill. When One of Them Is Naughty, I Shout ‘George!’ and That One Knows Who I Mean. the Only Time It Is Awkward for Me Is When a Teacher Calls up and Say We Have a Problem with George, and I Have to Ask Them Which One.
As a Child I Was Sometimes so Hungry That I Used to Dream That One Day I’d Get Locked in a Grocery Store.
I Never Did Anything for Personal Gain. When I Was a Boxer, I Wanted to Be Champion of the World, Not the Richest Man in the World. If You Can Maintain That Integrity in Whatever You Do, You Can’t Go Wrong. That’s What I Tell My Kids, Anyway.
My Mother Used to Tell Me, You Live and Learn. Then You Die and Forget It All.
The Seventies Are the Best Years. That’s When You’re Wise.
I Called Muhammad the Other Day. I Said, Muhammad, I Think I Can Really Get You Now in a Rematch. and He Said, You Crazy!. He Doesn’t Speak Rapidly, but He Said, George, I’m Coming to See You. He Said It with Such Love. No, I Don’t Have Any Regrets.
After I Lost to Muhammad Ali in Zaire, I Told Everybody That I Was Robbed. the Ropes Were Loose, the Water Was Drugged….Then, Once I’d Changed My Nature, I Realized What a Blemish I’d Put on This Great Man’s Career. Why Would I Go Out and Spit on His Victory to Mess up This Great Man’s Name?
Can’t Retire from Exercising.
Joe Frazier Told Me Why He Had That Hate for Muhammad Ali. Muhammad Was Calling Him an Uncle Tom. Kids Would Go to School and Taunt His Children, and They’d Come Home and His Wife Would Hear About It. What Bothered Joe Was That Every Morning He’d Get up Really Early, When It Was Dark, to Get the Roadwork In. He Always Wore This Big Hood Over His Head When He Ran. and He Said, “Man, I Don’t Want My Wife Thinking I’m Peeping into People’s Windows. the Point Is, at the Time, Joe Didn’t Get What an Uncle Tom Was. He Hated Muhammad Because He Thought Ali Was Calling Him a Peepin’ Tom. If Someone Would Have Explained to Joe What an Uncle Tom Was, He Might Not Have Ever Hated Ali.
I Love Joe Frazier. He’s Been an Original from Day One. a Few Years Back, Joe, Muhammad, and I Did a Video in England. After the Taping, We Were at a Charity Dinner with Some of the Royal Family. They Were Serving Lamb Chops with Mint Jelly Beautiful Food. the Waiter Asked, Can I Get You Anything Else? and Joe Said, I Want Some More Green Jelly. the Waiter Said, Do You Mean Mint Sauce? and Joe Said, Same Thing. and I Thought, Some People Put on a Face for You and a Face for Someone Else. but This Man Has Only One Face. Same Thing. If You Understood What He Said, Why Did You Need to Correct Him?
The First Thing That Came into My Mind When I Signed the Grill Contract for $137.5 Million Was, I’m Going to Make My Sisters Millionaires. After All These Years, They’re Finally Going to Be Millionaires. and They Did Become Millionaires with the Same Old Troubles as Everybody Else.
Losing Your Mother Is the Most Mysterious Lostness. You Know How the Astronauts Walk in Space, Attached to the Spacecraft by a Line? the Moment You Find Out Your Mother’s Died, You Feel Like Someone’s Slipped the Line off the Craft. You’re Just Floating Away. Floating… Floating… I Remember My Daughter Called and Said, Don’t You Worry. I’m on My Way. All the Sudden That Line Snagged and I Was Anchored Again.
Preaching Is the Most Original Thing I’ve Ever Done. There’s Nothing Familiar About It. You Have to Be Brave.
Winning the Title for a Second Time from Michael Moorer Was a Special Moment. but It Was Nothing Beyond That. a Week Later, People Were Heaping Praises on Me, and It Was Hard Because You’ve Gotta Act Like It’s Still Important. but It Was Already Over.
Changing Your Nature Is the Hardest Thing to Do. but I Discovered That You Can Be Who You Choose to Be.
All My Sons Are Named George Foreman. They All Know Where They Came From.
As an Adult, I Found Out That My Dad, J.D. Foreman, Was Not My Biological Dad. My Mom and J.D. Had Broken up for a Time, and That’s When I Was Conceived. That’s Why My Brothers and Sisters Called Me Mo Head. What They Were Really Saying Was Moorehead. My Biological Dad Was Named Leroy Moorehead.
Evil Lurks Where Disappointment Lodges.
I’ll Tell You How Low a Man Can Go. There Was a B.B. King Song That Went, “Nobody Loves Me but My Mother/And She Could Be Jiving’, Too.
Imagine Losing Everything You Think Matters to You in Ten Seconds.
The Day After I Lost to Muhammad Ali, People Came by and Put a Hand on My Shoulder and Said, It’s Okay, George. You’ll Have Another Chance. That Was Pity. from Being Feared to Being Pitied. Brother, That’s a Long Fall.
I Remember How People Looked at Me as I Left the United States for Zaire. Man, That’s George Foreman, Going to Fight Muhammad Ali. Then They’d Drop Their Heads. Fear. Nobody Would Give Me a Straight on Look. It Was a Funny Kind of Admiration. There Were People Too Scared to Even Ask for an Autograph.
Sandy Saddler, the Great Featherweight Champion, Gave Me Some Advice After I Won the Title. I Said, Man, This Sex Thing. How Did You Deal with This Sex Thing? He Said, George, It’s Real Easy When You’re Married and Faithful to One Woman. Because When You’re in the Mood, She’s in the Mood. It Gets Out of Hand When You Start Messing with Two or Three People. It Becomes Unmanageable. Even You Become Unmanageable. Be Faithful to One. I Just Didn’t Grasp It at the Time.
Most of Us Are Just Kids.
You Don’t Know What It Is to Be Heavyweight Champ of the World Until You Become the Heavyweight Champ of the World. It’s Tough. You Hear, so and so Became Champ and He Had Five Girls and Five Cadillacs. so You Get Five Cadillacs and Five Girls Just Because so and so Had It. It Doesn’t Originate from You. It’s Not Desire or Physical Urgency. It’s All Ignorance.
When I Won the Title Against Joe Frazier, It Was Everything I Ever Worked For.
In the 1968 Olympics, Tommie Smith and John Carlos Raised Black Gloved Fists on the Victory Stand, and That’s All People Were Talking About. My Gold Medal Didn’t Have Much Luster When I Went Home to Houston, but It Sure Had Luster to Me. I Wore That Thing Everywhere I Went. Those Were the Days of Nehru Jackets and Medallions, so It Just Fit In. I Wore It so Much That After a While, Some of the Gold Started to Rub Off. a Jeweler Made It Look Pretty Again, and I Didn’t Want Any More Gold to Rub Off, so I Put It in a Safe Deposit Box. That’s Where It Stayed for Years. in the Eighties, I Moved to Marshall, Texas. I Decided to Put That Medal in the Historical Society so the Kids Could See It and Be Inspired. the Message Was, You Could Come Out of This Small Town and Do Big Things. I Want All the Children in the World to Feel Like That Medal Is as Much Theirs as It Is My Children’s.
Sometimes My Older Brothers and Sisters Would Tease Me, Call Me Mo Head. I Didn’t Know Why. Sometimes They’d Say, You’re Not Really Our Brother. That Would Drive Me Crazy. Even Before I Outgrew Them, They Learned That the Teasing Wasn’t Worth the Consequences.
When There Was No Lunch to Take to School, I Blew up a Brown Paper Sack to Make It Look Full.
I Grew up in the Fifth Ward of Houston the Bloody Fifth, We Called It. Every Weekend Someone Got Killed.
I Dread Handshakes. I’ve Got Some Problems with My Hands, and Everywhere I Go, People Want to Impress Me with Their Grip. to Make It Worse, Now Women Are Coming up with That Firm Shake. so I’ll Say, Gimme Five! If a Boy Wants a Handshake, I’ll Just Give Him a Hug.
Missing Is Part of Winning.
Little-known facts about George Foreman — origins, oddities, and behind-the-scenes details from a public life.
He told ESPN SportsCentury he named all five of his sons George Edward so that each would know who his father was. Foreman learned as an adult that he was the illegitimate son of a man named Leroy Moorehead. The two men eventually met, and Foreman was a minister at Moorehead’s funeral.
Foreman won a gold medal at the 1968 Olympics.
With 68 of his 76 wins coming by knockout, he holds the highest knockout percentage of any heavyweight champion.
In 1975, he fought five heavyweight boxers in one night in Canada, knocking out three.
Undefeated since his comeback in 1987, Foreman fought undisputed heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield for the title in 1991. He stayed with Holyfield for 12 rounds and lost by decision, proving his competitiveness at age 42.
Prior to fighting Muhammad Ali, Foreman won 24 straight fights by knockout.
He won his first 40 fights, 37 by knockout.
His knockout punch against Michael Moorer caused Moorer to bite his mouthpiece in half.
He worked as a priest and was called ‘World’s coolest priest’ by the Norwegian magazine Vi Menn.
Inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 1990.
He was never knocked down during his second career from 1987 to 1997, going 31-3. He remained standing between rounds in every fight.
Won the heavyweight boxing title in January 1973 by knocking out Joe Frazier. Lost the title in October 1974 to Muhammad Ali.
At age 45, Foreman regained the world heavyweight title by knocking out Michael Moorer in the 10th round in 1994.
His daughter, Freeda George, is a professional on the US women’s boxing circuit.
Father with Adrienne of Michi Foreman. Father with Pamela Clay, who is not the actress, of George Foreman Jr. Father with Charlotte Gross of Georgetta Foreman. Father with Andrea of Freeda Foreman and George Foreman III. Father with Mary of Natalie Foreman, Leola Foreman, George Foreman IV, George Foreman V, and George Foreman VI.
Inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2003.
His son, George Foreman III, is his manager.
He climbed off the canvas three times to knock out Ron Lyle in 1976.
Knocked out heavyweight champions Joe Frazier, Ken Norton, and Michael Moorer.
He knocked out Joe Frazier in 1973 and Ken Norton in 1974, both in the second round. He KO’d Frazier again in the fifth round in a later meeting.
At age 15, he dropped out of Wheatley High School in Houston, Texas, in 1964.
Release of his book George Foreman’s Guide to Life: How to Get Up Off the Canvas When Life Knocks You Down with Linda Kulman.
Release of his book Let George Do It! with Fran Manushkin.
Release of his book The Knockout Entrepreneur with Ken Abraham.
At only six months old, he moved with his family to Houston, Texas, where his siblings grew up in the Fifth Ward.
Son George VI was born on August 15, 1999 at 10:45 pm.
Retired from boxing in 1977 after a loss to Jimmy Young, then returned to the ring in 1987.
Inducted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame.
Release of his book Going the Extra Smile.
Release of his book God in My Corner: A Spiritual Memoir with Ken Abraham.
Release of his book George Foreman’s Big Book of Grilling, Barbecue and Rotisserie: More than 75 Recipes for Family and Friends with Barbara Witt.
Purchased 20% ownership interest of racing horse Future Destiny with New York Jet great Wayne Chrebet.
Alumni of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Job Corps.
Upon the passing of Ali in 2016, he became the oldest living heavyweight champion. Upon his own death, that status passed to Larry Holmes.
Promotes the George Foreman Jumbo Fat Reducing Grilling Machine for shopping channel QVC.
Performed sports columnist George Kimball’s fourth marriage.
Release of his book By George: The Autobiography of George Foreman with Joel Engel.
Release of his book George Foreman’s Indoor Grilling Made Easy: More Than 100 Simple, Healthy Ways to Feed Family and Friends with Kathryn Kellinger.
He was cremated at Neptune Society. His ashes were buried inside a bag within his family’s burial plot in Houston’s Paradise North Cemetery. His memorial service was held on April 14, 2025 at Wortham Theater Center.
Release of his book Knock-Out-the-Fat Barbecue and Grilling Cookbook with Cherie Calbom.
Frequently appeared in Meineke ads during the 1990s.
Named the fourth greatest heavyweight of all time by The Ring Magazine in 1998.
Quick answers to the questions readers ask most about George Foreman.
Celebrities similar to George Foreman — same craft, ranked by reach.
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