FOREMAN, GEORGE

born Jan. 10, 1949, Marshall, Texas, U.S. George Foreman waving the U.S. flag after winning the gold medal at the 1968 Olympic Games in American boxer who twice was the world heavyweight champion (197374, 199495). When Foreman regained the heavyweight title at the age of 45, he became the oldest world heavyweight champion ever. Foreman grew up in Houston, Texas, and learned to box in a U.S. Job Corps camp in Oregon. At the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City he won the gold medal in the heavyweight boxing competition. The 6-foot 3-inch (191-centimetre), 218-pound (99-kilogram) Foreman first captured the professional heavyweight belt by knocking out Joe Frazier in two rounds at Kingston, Jamaica, on Jan. 22, 1973. He had won all 40 of his professional bouts, including a sequence of 24 consecutive knockouts, until he fell to Muhammad Ali in eight rounds at Kinshasa, Zaire (now in Congo), on Oct. 30, 1974. He retired from the ring in 1977 and became an evangelist. Foreman resumed professional boxing in 1987 at the age of 39 and found immediate success and celebrity in a heavyweight division that was lacking quality fighters. Despite his age and more than 30 additional pounds, Foreman remained a devastating puncher and captured the world heavyweight title for the second time by knocking out Michael Moorer in 10 rounds at Las Vegas, Nev., on Nov. 5, 1994. He resigned his title the following year, on June 28, 1995.