RIP George Foreman

March 21, 2025 8:58 PM

George Foreman, heavyweight champion, has died at 76
posted by Ideefixe (34 comments total)

Damn, end of an era with Frazier and Ali already gone. And the 90s comeback is up there among remarkable sports accomplishments.
posted by atoxyl at 9:03 PM on March 21 [5 favorites]

.
posted by blurker at 9:04 PM on March 21

.
posted by Carillon at 9:14 PM on March 21

🥊
posted by brachiopod at 9:19 PM on March 21 [2 favorites]

Also famous for the George Foreman Lean Mean Fat-Reducing Grilling Machine. Over 100 million grills sold!
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 9:23 PM on March 21 [12 favorites]

.
posted by Windopaene at 9:29 PM on March 21

.
posted by Canageek at 9:49 PM on March 21

.
posted by potrzebie at 10:00 PM on March 21

.
posted by gentlyepigrams at 10:26 PM on March 21

.
posted by kensington314 at 10:59 PM on March 21

Really one of the greats, and probably the most true personality besides The Greatest. As a boxer he wasn't so much an example of The Sweet Science, he was like one of the robots in the videogame Berzerk!, no matter what you did or where you moved, he'd just point himself at you and continue chasing.

I didn't even begrudge him the grill, which I received as a gift once and still have the waffle maker that came with it. In honor!

.
posted by rhizome at 11:38 PM on March 21 [3 favorites]

Really incredibly few people in his line of work have as fortunate a run in life.
posted by atoxyl at 12:08 AM on March 22 [6 favorites]

.
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 12:13 AM on March 22

.
posted by ishmael at 12:59 AM on March 22

.
posted by HearHere at 2:15 AM on March 22

.

To call his life fortunate is to ignore completely the deprivation of his upbringing. His life was one of overcoming incredible obstacles. More power and blessings to his memory.
posted by Barbara Spitzer at 2:30 AM on March 22 [11 favorites]

.
posted by mersen at 2:35 AM on March 22

it's a hell of a thing to think about how he made far, far more money from lending his name to a countertop grill than he ever did from boxing
posted by DoctorFedora at 3:23 AM on March 22 [6 favorites]

To call his life fortunate is to ignore completely the deprivation of his upbringing. His life was one of overcoming incredible obstacles

I knew it wasn’t the ideal choice of words when I wrote it, but I hadn’t come up with a better way to say what I meant - not only did he rise from a rough upbringing to become an all-time great, he came out the other side of two heavyweight boxing careers seemingly in much better shape than a lot of his peers.
posted by atoxyl at 3:50 AM on March 22 [9 favorites]

Hopefully his last will and testament doesn’t say, “I leave it all to my favorite son, George Edward Foreman”.
posted by rh at 4:39 AM on March 22 [7 favorites]

Also famous for the George Foreman Lean Mean Fat-Reducing Grilling Machine.

And for one of my favorite jokes ever, the "George Foreman seafood diet: I see food, I eat it"
posted by chavenet at 4:45 AM on March 22 [4 favorites]

Also famous for the George Foreman Lean Mean Fat-Reducing Grilling Machine.

We used the heck out of our Foreman Chicken Roaster. Alas, Costco’s rotisserie chickens knocked-out the roaster forever.

.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:58 AM on March 22 [1 favorite]

.
posted by skye.dancer at 6:13 AM on March 22

.
posted by JoeXIII007 at 6:23 AM on March 22

.
posted by djseafood at 7:38 AM on March 22

Hopefully his last will and testament doesn’t say, “I leave it all to my favorite son, George Edward Foreman”.

Yes, my fun fact of the day is that George III, George IV, George V, and George VI can refer to either the last four kings of the UK not named Charles or Edward or the last four sons fathered by Foreman.
posted by nangua at 8:22 AM on March 22 [2 favorites]

🥊🥊🥊
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:34 AM on March 22

The Foreman Grill colonized Canada, true story
posted by ginger.beef at 8:37 AM on March 22

.
posted by evilDoug at 9:37 AM on March 22

I really loved seeing him in an interview in the late '90s on the Late Show with David Letterman. I'm paraphrasing from memory but...

Dave says, "Now, you used to be known as a pretty mean guy, but here you are, you're friendly and happy."

George replied, "Well Dave, what happened was, I retired from boxing and someone told me about this thing called 'ice cream'!"

.
posted by VTX at 9:59 AM on March 22 [9 favorites]

.

It seems like he was a pretty nice guy overall. A little unoriginal as far as naming kids, but I guess it runs in the family, as there's at least one little George.
posted by BlueHorse at 10:49 AM on March 22

.
posted by lester's sock puppet at 1:06 PM on March 22

Aw no. One of the few who publicly rethought his identity following the Ali defeat, giving us a template for how to think about changing our minds.
posted by toodleydoodley at 2:26 PM on March 22

We still use our grill on a regular basis. It makes passable paninis, too.

Unlike a lot of professional fighters, he grew as a person in retirement and transcended the stereotypes. A role model that too many ignore.
posted by tommasz at 3:13 PM on March 22 [1 favorite]