After a troubled childhood, George Foreman took up amateur boxing and won a gold medal in the heavyweight division at the 1968 Summer Olympics. Having turned professional the next year, he won the world heavyweight title with a second-round knockout of then-undefeated Joe Frazier in 1973. Two successful title defenses were made before Foreman’s first professional loss to Muhammad Ali in “The Rumble in the Jungle” in 1974. Unable to secure another title opportunity, Foreman retired after a loss to Jimmy Young in 1977.
Following what he referred to as a religious epiphany, Foreman became an ordained Christian minister. Ten years later, he announced a comeback and, in 1994, at age 45, he regained a portion of the heavyweight championship by knocking out 27-year-old Michael Moorer to win the unified WBA, IBF, and lineal titles. Foreman remains the oldest heavyweight champion in history, and the second oldest in any weight class after Bernard Hopkins (at light heavyweight). He retired in 1997 at the age of 48, with a final record of 76 wins 5 losses and 68 knockouts.
But when former two-time World Heavyweight Champion George Foreman finally decided to leave the professional boxing limelight, the extra pounds he’d gained decided to hang around for a while longer.
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Not one to stay down for long, Foreman lost the weight and credited his success with eating healthy. This made him a perfect fit to be the spokesperson for a fat-reducing grill, which was appropriately named the George Foreman grill. The George Foreman Grill has resulted in sales of over 100 million units since it was first launched, a feat achieved in a little over 15 years.
The company producing the product paid him $137 million in 1999, in order to buy out the right to use his name. Previous to that he was being paid about 40% of the profits on each grill sold (earning him $4.5 million a month in payouts at its peak) so it is estimated he has made a total of over $200 million from the endorsement, substantially more than he earned as a boxer.
Since then, he’s learned a lot about himself and business. He even wrote a book titled, God In My Corner, where he shares some of his learnings like,
“To succeed in business, you need somebody in your corner who cares enough to challenge you and is courageous enough to tell you the truth, especially when the pressure is on.”
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“Nobody can do everything well,” explains Foreman. “So learn how to delegate responsibility to other winners and then hold them accountable for their decisions.”
Since then, Foreman has had a string of successful businesses, all making millions, but it all started with the George Foreman grill.
Below are some delicious recipesthat will help you knock out the fat…just like George!
