George Foreman has passed away at the age of 76

It is ungrateful to be remembered as the loser in the most mythical boxing match of the time, when in everything else you were a winner. George Foreman began his life as a criminal Smångster in Houston’s poorest neighborhoods and when he died this year on March 21 in the same city, he was a popular billionaire. The path to achieving post -war American dream went through 76 victories as a professional boxer. And a low -fat electric grill.

In October last year, Muhammad Ali had passed the heavyweight title in boxing In the legendary match in Kinshasa called The Rumble in the Jungle. It was Foreman’s merit that Ali’s return became so spectacular. When Ali went up in the ring, it was as a powerful underdog against Foreman who defeated both Joe Frazier and Ken Norton, the only boxers that hitherto rat at Ali.

A victory for Ali gave eight times The money. So formidable was considered Foreman and so feared was his right hand. And seven rounds into the match had Foreman completely dominated. But at the end of the eighth round he lay knocked out on the rug, defeated by The Greatest.

Foreman and Ali would later become good friends. They were not then. During six weeks of charging in Kinshasa, Ali had hackled his opponent and created a political charge around this hit. The political left that they both belonged to had been divided by the Vietnam War. The same establishment that deprived Ali his title for war refusal was embraced by Foreman who had President Lyndon B Johnson to thank him for managing the direction of a life course that early pointed in the wrong direction.

He was born in 1949 in Marshall in Texas But grew up in the big city of Houston, in the poor and violent area Fifth Ward where he was early withdrawn into street criminality. At the age of 15 he jumped off the school but a year later he got a place in Job Corps – A program against youth unemployment and poverty launched by Johnson – where he trained as a carpenter and mason. Within the framework of Job Corps, Foreman moved to California and started training there. Three years later he won his 25th amateur match when he secured the Olympic gold in Mexico City in 1968.

The medal opened the door to a long and successful career as a professional. When he first took the world championship title from Joe Frazier, he had a fact of 38 wins and zero losses as a professional.

A couple of years after the defeat against Ali in Kinshasa Foreman pulled back from boxing. As a newly saved pastor, he had put the gloves on the shelf to preach in his little church in Houston instead.

But ten years later, in 1987, he made a comeback to raise money for a youth center he started. He would stay in the ring for another ten years.

In the same vein he lent out his name to a fat -reducing electric grill with a favorable agreement that would over time give him many more money than he ever withdrew on the boxing. Although his boxing career spanned over three decades.

When he recognized his world championship title in Las Vegas in 1994, it had been 20 years since he lost it in Kinshasa. At the age of 45, he became the oldest title holder ever.

The 1970s boxing fans had in « Big George » seen a demonic figure like Ali had to defeat to be the greatest of all. Newly arrived viewers in the 1990s instead got acquainted with a preaching pugilist who with humor offered himself in the TV sofas and with a smile rolled George Foreman Lean Mean Fat-Reducing Grilling Machine On TV shop. In 2009, the grill had been sold in 100 million copies.

He leaves behind his wife Mary Joan Martelly, 61, whom he married in 1985 after four previous marriages. He had a total of 12 children. All five sons were named George. For a journalist he declared Jokingly the name choices that « as a boxer you have to make room for memory loss ».

READ MORE: The tensions around the big match in the « jungle » still current