George Foreman.

George Foreman. George Foreman, born in 1949, American professional boxer, who was the heavyweight boxing champion from 1973 to 1974. He made one of the most remarkable comebacks in sports history when he regained the heavyweight title in 1994. Foreman was born in Marshall, Texas. Interested in sports from an early age, he played football and basketball as a youngster. He joined the Job Corps in 1965 and spent two years doing construction work and forestry in Oregon. During that time he also earned a high school equivalency diploma at Camp Parks, a California industrial training center. Foreman was soon noticed by boxing instructor Nick Broadus, who taught him to box and started him on a training program. He fought his first official amateur fight in 1967 in San Francisco and won with a knockout in the first round. Shortly after Foreman's graduation from the Job Corps, Broadus helped him obtain a job as a physical education teacher at Camp Parks. Foreman also continued his boxing career. After winning the national amateur heavyweight championship in 1968, he earned a position on the United States boxing team for the Olympic Games in Mexico City that year. At the games he won the heavyweight gold medal. Foreman started his professional career with a third-round knockout victory over Don Waldhelm in New York City in 1969. In the next three and a half years he defeated 36 consecutive opponents. In 1973 Foreman defeated Joe Frazier for the heavyweight championship in a bout fought in Kingston, Jamaica. Foreman successfully defended his title against Joe Roman in Tokyo in 1973 and against Ken Norton in Caracas, Venezuela, in 1974, bringing his total to 40 consecutive fights without a defeat. In October 1974 Foreman lost the heavyweight title to Muhammad Ali when he was knocked out in the eighth round of a fight in Kinshasa, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, DRC), the first heavyweight championship bout fought in Africa. Foreman retired from boxing in 1977, but he returned to the ring ten years later at the age of 38. His charismatic personality and determination helped revitalize the sport of heavyweight boxing as he won a series of victories. In April 1991 he challenged heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield for the title but lost in a 12-round decision. He continued to box, however, and in 1993 Foreman, who had achieved wide popularity with his return to boxing, also starred in George, a television situation comedy series. In 1994 he defeated heavyweight champion Michael Moorer with a tenth-round knockout, regaining the heavyweight title at the age of 45, 20 years after he first lost the championship to Ali. He was later stripped of the title for refusing to fight Moorer in a rematch. Foreman was inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 1990. His autobiography, By George, was published in 1995. Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.