American George Foreman, one of the great second acts in sports, who reclaimed the heavyweight boxing title at age 45 and became a celebrated product pitchman, died on Friday at age 76.

“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,” his family said in an Instagram post.

An intimidating, thunderous puncher who lost his first title to Muhammad Ali in their famous “Rumble in the Jungle” in 1974, “Big George” was a more rotund, jovial figure when he knocked out Michael Moorer for his second crown two decades later.

Muhammad Ali watches as the defending world champion George Foreman goes down in the eighth round of their fight in Kinshasa, Zaire, on 30 October, 1974. Photograph: AP

Foreman’s comeback and the fortune he made selling fat-wicking electric cooking grills made him an icon of self-improvement and success for the Baby Boom generation.

Born in Marshall, Texas, on Jan. 10, 1949, Foreman’s family soon moved to Houston where he and his six siblings were raised by a single mother. Growing up poor in the segregated American South, Foreman dropped out of junior high school and used his size and fists in street robberies.

“George’s journey from the streets of Fifth Ward to boxing and business success was an inspiration,” Houston Mayor John Whitmire said in a statement.

“He never forgot where he came from … Houston will forever be proud to call George Foreman one of our own.”

The Job Corps, part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s “Great Society” reforms, “rescued me from the gutter,” Foreman later wrote. Through the program, 16-year-old Foreman moved out of Texas and was encouraged to channel his rage and growing bulk into boxing.

At age 19 and in his 25th amateur fight, Foreman captured the heavyweight boxing gold medal at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. Turning pro, he won 37 straight matches on his way to face reigning champion Joe Frazier in Kingston, Jamaica, winning by technical knockout in round two.

Foreman defended the belt twice more before meeting Ali in Kinshasa, Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in one of the most celebrated boxing matches in history.

Ali had been stripped of his crown seven years prior for refusing to be drafted into the Vietnam War and came into the match a heavy underdog against the bigger, younger champion. But for seven rounds, Ali laid against the ropes and fended off Foreman’s clubbing blows, tiring him before knocking him out in the eighth round.

“I was one strong heavyweight punching fighter,” Foreman told Reuters in 2007. “I was one punching machine and that was the first time I delivered everything I had and nothing worked.”

The loss devastated Foreman. He took a year off before returning to the ring and then, after a second professional loss, retired in 1977 to become an ordained minister in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

A decade later and considerably heavier at 315 pounds (143 kg), Foreman staged an unlikely return to the ring to raise money for a youth center he founded in Texas.

He went on to win 24 straight matches, gradually slimming along the way, before losing to Evander Holyfield in a 12-round decision in 1991. Three years later, he knocked out undefeated southpaw Moorer to become the oldest ever heavyweight champion at age 45.

Foreman’s last match was in 1997, ending his career with a professional record of 76 wins and five losses.

Foreman was married four times in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1985, he married for the fifth time to Mary Joan Martelly, with whom he remained for the rest of his life. He had five sons – all called George – five biological daughters, and two adopted daughters.

Throughout the 1990s and after retirement, he was an enthusiastic pitchman for various products, most notably an electric grill from home appliance maker Salton Inc. In 1999, the company paid Foreman and his partners $137.5 million to put his name on the grill and other goods.

“What I do is fall in love with every product I sell,” Foreman wrote in his autobiography, “By George.”

“That’s what sells. Just like with preaching.”

-Reuters

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A Nigerian footballer, Abubakar Lawal, who transferred from Rwanda’s AS Kigali to Ugandan champions, Vipers, died on Monday in a motorcycle accident in Kampala, Uganda.  

The Nigerian forward was on a motorcycle popularly known as ‘boda boda” heading to Entebbe when the accident occurred.

He was heading towards Entebbe when the motorcycle clashed with a car.

Lawal, 29, joined Vipers in 2022 after two seasons at AS Kigali and went on to help the Ugandan outfit win the league title in the 2022/23 season.

He also qualified the team to the group stage of the CAF Champions League under current Rayon coach Robertinho.

He has played 8 league games for Vipers so far this season.

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The Nigeria Football Federation has condoled the family of former Nigeria international midfielder Ayo Ogunlana, who died in Kaduna on Friday after observing his early-morning walk.

NFF General Secretary, Dr Mohammed Sanusi, showered tributes on the departed midfield pearl, who was a star attraction during several important Nigeria FA Cup battles in the 1980s and held sway in the middle for the Super Eagles in the late 1980s, and at the 1990 Africa Cup of Nations finals in Algeria.

“We are very sad to learn of the sudden passing of Ayo Ogunlana, only a couple of weeks after the demise of another former Eagle, Moses Effiong (a member of the 1980 AFCON-winning Green Eagles squad, in faraway USA).

Ogunlana was a great midfielder who made playing football look so easy with his majestic touches and turns, and his magnificent free-kicks.

“We pray that the Almighty will grant both of them eternal rest and grant the families they have left behind the fortitude to bear the losses.”

Ogunlana was magisterial in the midfield as Nigeria overhauled Guinea and Zimbabwe to qualify for the 1990 Africa Cup of Nations and was imperial against Cameroon in a 1990 FIFA World Cup qualifying match in Ibadan that the Super Eagles won with an emphatic 2-0.

He also played in the 1990 ECOWAS Cup competition that Nigeria hosted in Kaduna.

In March 1990, the midfield generalissimo earned rave reviews as Nigeria finished with the silver medals at the 17^th Africa Cup of Nations in Algeria, even coming close to bagging Nigeria a late equalizer in the final against hosts and winners Algeria, from his favourite dead-ball position.   

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