BREAKING NEWS! PASTOR, WORLD CHAMPION BOXER, AND FAMOUS GRILL PITCHMAN GEORGE FOREMAN HAS DIED

DANIEL WHYTE III, PRESIDENT OF GOSPEL LIGHT SOCIETY INTERNATIONAL, SAYS ONLY GOD THROUGH HIS SON JESUS CHRIST COULD HAVE PRODUCED THE KIND OF LIFE THAT GEORGE FOREMAN HAD. GLORY BE TO GOD! GEORGE FOREMAN ADMITTED HE WAS NOT A PERFECT MAN, AND, YES, HE WAS ACCUSED LATE IN LIFE BY TWO WOMEN IN THEIR SIXTIES FOR SEXUALLY ASSAULTING THEM WHEN THEY WERE MINORS YEARS BEFORE HE BECAME A CHRISTIAN. AT THIS POINT, IT SEEMS WE WILL NEVER KNOW THE TRUTH ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED IN THIS MATTER. SO, AT THIS MOMENT, LET’S JUST ALL REJOICE AT THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL AND SALVATION THROUGH JESUS CHRIST, THAT CHANGED A MAN’S LIFE SO RADICALLY — INSTEAD OF FOREMAN BECOMING A HATED CRIMINAL, HE BECAME A PREACHER OF THE GOSPEL, A LOVING AND BELOVED FAMILY MAN WITH 11 CHILDREN AND AN AMERICAN ICON FOR THE GLORY OF GOD.

 

George Foreman has died at the age of 76.

George Foreman won a gold medal at the 1968 Olympics. Bettmann/Gett

Foreman was a two-time heavyweight boxing champion and Olympic gold medalist. Nicknamed Big George, in later years he became the spokesperson for the George Foreman Grill, which sold millions of units.

George Foreman Recalls Incredible Conversion to Faith in God: ‘Jesus Christ Is Coming Alive in Me!’

Inside the ring and out, George Foreman was once a man driven by anger and resentment — raging emotion that drove him to become the world heavyweight champion in 1973. More than a decade later, he did it again, but the driving force behind that record-breaking comeback was profoundly different.

Foreman abruptly walked away from his boxing career for the first time in 1977, after a significant spiritual awakening. Growing up, his mother — a single parent raising six children in the Fifth Ward community of Houston — spoke of God often, a habit of which Foreman was not fond. But those words, seeds planted over time, sprung to life for the boxing champion as he recuperated in his locker room after a fight.

“My first time around, I was just ambitious: I wanted to be top heavyweight champion of the world … rich and famous and that whole thing,” Foreman recently told CBN’s Faithwire. “Then, all of the sudden, I hit that rock. I found out there was more to life. I found God on the dressing room table, screaming, ‘Jesus Christ is coming alive in me!’”

After that life-changing conversion, Foreman’s focus was singular: He wanted to preach the Gospel.

All of his story — from growing up in poverty to becoming the two-time heavyweight boxing champion to reinventing himself as an entrepreneur to stepping into full-time ministry — is chronicled in the new movie, “Big George Foreman: The Miraculous Story of the Once and Future Heavyweight Champion of the World,” in theaters Friday.

Many of the lessons he learned in boxing, the now-74-year-old athlete recalled, he channeled into his newfound passion for the Lord. As a scrappy fighter, Foreman had to learn to translate his raw emotion into fine-tuned athleticism. He fought just as hard for his then-burgeoning faith.

“I found religion and I realized I was gonna have to fight to be in church on time,” he joked. “And sometimes, I was just gonna be the best mopper around and the sweeper of the floors. It was a fight to keep this thing going, that I would tell the story for as long as I live and not let it get away from me.”

Foreman fought his way to the top of the boxing world, and he battled against faith — until he didn’t.

Once he encountered God, Foreman said, “I was gonna fight … to make certain everybody I met knew about it and I didn’t find anything else worthy of my time, other than doing the work of evangelism.”

The legendary boxer’s faith is the byproduct of his mother’s own devoted relationship with God.

Early in his career, he was certain that, so long as he found fame and fortune, she wouldn’t need God, and neither would he. In fact, he thought success would “stop all that praying” his mother did.

“But she never stopped praying,” Foreman recalled. “Then I became a minister … and she told me once, ‘At first, I didn’t believe in it. But now, you’re my pastor. I believe in you.’ … She said, ‘You’re my preacher.’ That is the most touching thing that ever happened to me. She believed in me and she believed in what I was doing.”

After years of ministry, Foreman — a one-time boxing champion and Olympic gold medalist — stepped back into the ring with a profoundly different perspective. Bolstered not by anger and resentment but by faith in God, Foreman went on to become the world heavyweight champion a second time in 1994, after defeating 26-year-old Michael Moorer.

He still holds the record for the oldest athlete to ever achieve such a feat.

Since his salvation, Foreman told CBN’s Faithwire, his “whole life has been dedicated to [evangelism].” In fact, that’s why he returned to boxing, in hopes that regaining such a platform would give him the opportunity to share the Gospel with a greater number of people.

“All I want people to understand is … I found God, I found out about Jesus Christ,” he said. “I don’t want that lost. And I think if they go to the movie, they’ll find out there’s more to me than what meets the eye. God is in there.”

You can watch our full conversation with Foreman in the video above.

source: https://www.faithwire.com/2023/04/28/george-foreman-recalls-incredible-conversion-to-faith-in-god-jesus-christ-is-coming-alive-in-me/

The news was shared by his family on his official Instagram account on Friday, March 21.

George Foreman: From brutal heavyweight champ, world famous grills and now giving knockout sermons fighting for God – The Sun | The Sun

“Our hearts are broken. 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. A devout preacher, a devoted husband, a loving father, and a proud grand and great grandfather, he lived a life marked by unwavering faith, humility, and purpose,” the statement read.

Foreman was born in Texas in 1949. He grew up in Houston. “I grew up in the Fifth Ward of Houston — the Bloody Fifth, we called it. Every weekend someone got killed,” he told Esquire in 2006. His family was poor, and he dropped out of high school at 15 and was involved in petty crime. But at 16 he signed up for the Job Corps, where he got his GED and learned carpentry and bricklaying. During that time he also began training as a boxer.

“I went into boxing at the age of 17 to lose weight and become a great street fighter,” he told Ringside Report in 2000. “Next thing I know, I was fighting as a Golden Glover. It basically all happened as an accident.”

In 1968, at 19 years old, Foreman won a gold medal at the Mexico City Olympic Games. “Winning that gold medal at the end, I wanted the whole world to know where I was from, so I picked up a small American flag and paraded around the ring to make sure they knew,” he told On the Ropes, a boxing radio show, in 2023. “This was my chance to represent my country. That was greater to me than even winning the boxing matches.”

The next year, Foreman went professional. He won all 13 fights that year and all 12 fights in 1970. By the end of 1971, with 32 wins and no losses, he was the number-one challenger in the world and expected to face World Heavyweight Champion Joe Frazier in a bid for the title.

George Foreman and Muhammad Ali fight in 1974’s historic Rumble in the Jungle match. Ken Regan /Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty

The two finally fought in 1973’s The Sunshine Showdown, which Foreman won by total knockout. “I didn’t fear anyone except Joe Frazier,” Foreman admitted in a 2023 interview with Andscape. “I hoped something would’ve happened to him before I’d ever fight for the title.”

“I’ve never told anyone this, but that was the happiest time of my life in boxing because I worked so hard to fulfill my dream and become heavyweight champion,” Foreman explained. “It was the first and last moment I felt that.”

Foreman defended his title against José Roman and Ken Norton. In 1974, he faced Muhammad Ali in a historic fight dubbed “the Rumble in the Jungle,” believed to be the most-watched live television broadcast of all time. Ali, a massive underdog, defeated Foreman.

Through the years, Foreman told different versions of the event, at times alleging that the fight was fixed for Ali. He was upset that they never had a rematch.

“For years afterwards I would agonize, ‘How could this happen?’” he told Vogue Man Arabia in 2019. “That night I lost everything I ever was. It was the most devastating event in my life as an athlete. I was not even a man no more.” But he and Ali eventually became friends.

Foreman continued to fight. He retired from boxing in 1977, and after a near-death experience after his last match, became a born-again Christian.

But 10 years later, amid financial difficulties, Foreman returned to boxing at the age of 38. “It was like, I did it once, I’m gonna have to do it again,” Foreman told USA Today in 2023. “It was the only profession I knew. Sometimes I wished I’d been a golfer, it’s much easier than boxing.”

Foreman received title shots against Evander Holyfield in 1991 and Tommy Morrison in 1993, but lost both. But in 1994 he beat Michael Moorer and reclaimed his championship.

“When you fight for the heavyweight championship of the world it does feel unbelievable, it doesn’t feel like you’re really there, it could be a dream,” he told Boxing News in 2023. “‘You’re going to wake up soon, you don’t belong in the ring with these guys.’ The second time around, I could deal with all those thoughts. It was a special moment, more so than when I won the fight with Frazier.”

As he succeeded once again in the ring, he also started to make more public appearances and became a celebrity, even starring in a short-lived sitcom George. Foreman retired from boxing for good in 1999. He finished his career with 76 wins and five losses.

George Foreman with a George Foreman Grill in 2003. zz/GL/UPPA/STAR MAX/IPx/AP

In 1994, Foreman launched the George Foreman Grill. To date it has been so successful that well over 100 million grills have been sold. “My attorney came to me and said, ‘George, you’re making other people wealthy, why don’t you make yourself wealthy?'” Foreman told PEOPLE in 2003. “And he told me about this grill.”

Foreman competed on The Masked Singer in 2022. He also executive produced the 2023 biopic Big George Foreman: The Miraculous Story of the Once and Future Heavyweight Champion of the World,

Foreman had 12 children: Natalia, Leola, Michi,  Isabella, Courtney, Georgetta and Freeda (who died in 2019) and five sons all named George Edward Foreman.

“I named all my sons George Edward Foreman so they would always have something in common,” Foreman wrote on his website. “I say to them, ‘If one of us goes up, then we all go up together. And if one goes down, we all go down together!'” Two of his grandsons also share the name.

Foreman was married four times. He was with Adrienne Calhoun from 1971 to 1974, Cynthia Lewis from 1977 to 1979 and Andrea Skeete from 1982 to 1985. In 1985 he married Mary Joan Martelly.

In 2022, Foreman was accused of child sexual abuse. He denied the allegations.

Foreman is survived by his wife and 11 children.

George Foreman falters in bid to trim 1970s sexual abuse claims

Foreman argues Texas law and its statute of limitations should apply, even though one of the claims involves a purported assault in California.

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