Whatever Happened To? George Foreman

Some of you likely remember George Foreman for his illustrious boxing career. He won a gold medal. He was heavyweight champion. He was Muhammad Ali’s foe in the 1974 “Rumble in the Jungle” (Ali won). He retired for ten years then famously made a comeback and would become heavyweight champion a second time at the unlikely age of 45.

Others may remember George Foreman’s signature on a pretty common 1990’s cooking appliance, the mean lean grilling machine, aka the George Foreman Grill. The TV ads that resulted in millions of sales showed a different George Foreman, a smilling, affable, big teddy bear.

What you may not know about George Foreman is, he is a preacher, he has 12 kids and a world class car collection, and has recently been the subject of sexual abuse allegations.

How is it that the guy who knocked out Joe Frazier ended up with his name on a countertop hamburger maker? Here’s the story:

“As it turns out, the George Foreman Grill was not actually invented by George Foreman. It was actually invented by Michael Boehm, and it was Boehm and his associates who reached out to George about becoming the grill’s brand ambassador. George was already an ambassador for several products, and he was reticent to take the offer, in part because they weren’t offering him any money upfront.

“Ultimately, a lawyer friend of his put him on the spot over the phone, and his wife, having overheard the conversation, decided to try the grill out for herself. She told George she liked its dual surface technology, and eventually convinced George himself by grilling him a burger on it. After trying a burger and seeing the grill, he was impressed, and decided that he would join the venture.” (Joseph Allen, Aug. 28 2023, disractify.com)

According to Foreman, who got 40% of grill sales, the deal netted him $138 million.

When he was not knocking out opponents or hyping his grill, Forman was building a family, A big one. He had 12 children, five sons and seven daughters. He has been married to Mary Joan Martelly since 1985. Two of his daughters are from that marriage. Before that, he had four other wives.

Foreman named all five on his sons after himself. He explained that to Yahoo Entertainmant:

“I chose to give all my sons the name George Edward Foreman to ensure they share a common bond. I often tell them, ‘If one of us achieves success, we all rise together, and if one faces challenges, we face them together as a united front!’” (Gabrielle Tazewell, June 17, 2024)

A couple of his kids took after their dad and found themselves in the ring. The George Edward Foreman known as “Monk” has fought 17 professional bouts and won them all. Now 41, he, like his father, retired and then made a comeback.

One of his daughters, Freeda Foreman, also became a professional boxer. She won her first five fights, then, after losing the sixth, retired and became a boxing promoter. Freeda passed away in 2019 at the age of 42 in what is believed to have been a suicide.

It was after one of the low points in Foreman’s career that his commitment to religion was born. In 1977 he lost a fight to Jimmy Young, the result of which was his first retirement. There were other implications. They are described below by Rob Weatherby in a Sept. 23, 2023 article in Pelham Today.

“After his last fight, Foreman became ill in his dressing room suffering from exhaustion and heatstroke. He had a near-death experience. He remembers being in a ‘hellish, frightening place of nothingness and despair.’ He begged God to help him and heard God say, ‘I don’t want your money. I want you.’

“After this traumatic experience, Foreman committed his life to Christ. In his words: ‘I dropped everything I was doing to tell everyone that Jesus Christ is alive. I had gone all over the world to exalt George Foreman. Now I want to go all over telling people about Jesus.’ He started by preaching on street corners and eventually became an ordained minister with the ‘Church of the Lord Jesus Christ’ in Houston.

“He now devoted his time to his family and congregation. He also opened a youth center for troubled youth and shared his story on Christian television broadcasts. Foreman often uses boxing terms in his preaching.”

An AP story from Aug. 8, 2015 offers an example:

“The Rev. George Foreman flipped his Bible open to the Book of Genesis, let fly with a left hook for Jesus and sent Satan sprawling into the ropes.

“‘You’ve got to learn how to fight!’ he exhorted. ‘If you believe in God, you’ve got to fight for him.’

“The Sunday morning faithful, warmed by a hand-clapping round of gospel singing, rocked on their hard wooden pews with the verbal punch.

“At 66, Foreman — a two-time world heavyweight champion and veteran of more than 80 scarring professional boxing bouts — might be graying, his card-topping pugilistic battles long over. But in his bout against sin as pastor of north Houston’s Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, he is still a powerhouse slugger.

“In a 60-minute exposition on God’s creation of the world, he touched on false philosophers; biology; Pluto; marijuana; boxing punches; getting lost in traffic; the morals of dogs; the morals of women who buy booze by the gallon; people who wallow; crops and weeds; and, of course, Adam, Eve, the Garden of Eden, a treacherous serpent and an angry God.”

Aside from the Bible-thumping, Foreman has put together an impressive collection of cars, including vintage Ferrari’s, Corvettes, Cadillacs, even a 1931 Ford. Nico DeMattia of Yahoo Autos (Nov. 18, 2023) has this to say about Foreman’s collection:

“Of all the celebrity car collections I’ve seen, this is one of my favorites because you can tell Foreman actually likes cars. There are just so many oddball vehicles in his collection that you know he didn’t buy them for status and prestige, he bought them because he liked them.

“Most of Foreman’s cars he bought new, making them one-owner cars with an incredibly famous single owner. They aren’t all perfect, either, and both Foreman and Hagerty are upfront about the flaws and issues with some of them. The overall quality of the collection is incredible, though, and there are some genuinely cool cars to comb through.”

Foreman recently put a part of his collection up for sale. Hagerty is the auction house selling the vehicles. Foreman told the Robb Report “I have been a car collector and enthusiast most of my life, but the time has come for me to share my cars with other like-minded enthusiasts.” (Rachel Cormack, Nov 20, 2023 )

Now 75, Foreman is facing a new set of challenges.

David Chen of the New York Times filed this story on Aug. 24, 2022.

“Two women filed lawsuits Wednesday in California alleging that George Foreman, the former world heavyweight boxing champion, sexually abused them when they were teenagers in California in the 1970s.

“According to the lawsuits, the women, using the pseudonyms Gwen H. and Denise S. to protect their identities, initially met Foreman when they were under 10 years old through their fathers. One man was a boxer and sparring partner of Foreman, while the other was a boxing manager and longtime adviser to Foreman.

“Foreman then groomed the girls for several years, according to the complaints, before forcing them to have sex with him in places ranging from a San Francisco hotel to an apartment in Beverly Hills. The two women, who are both in their early 60s, filed the complaints in Los Angeles County Superior Court.”

Foreman was adamant is his denials. He gave this statement to the New York Post (April 8, 2023):

“Over the past six months, two women have been trying to extort millions of dollars each from me and my family. They are falsely claiming that I sexually abused them over 45 years ago in the 1970s. I adamantly and categorically deny these allegations.

“The pride I take in my reputation means as much to me as my sports accomplishments, and I will not be intimidated by baseless threats and lies. I am, and always will be, guided by my faith and trust in God. I will work with my lawyers to fully and truthfully expose my accusers’ schemes and defend myself in court. I don’t pick fights, but I don’t run away from them either.”

Shortly after that another allegation appeared in USA Today (Josh Peter, April 26, 2023).

“A third woman has said Hall of Fame boxer George Foreman committed sexual battery against her when she was a minor and Foreman was in his 20s in the 1970s, according to a copy of a civil lawsuit obtained by USA TODAY Sports.

“The woman, identified as Jane Doe, said she was 15 when Foreman propositioned her with money in exchange for him sexually abusing her, according to the lawsuit.”

At time of writing, none of these suits have either been settled or gone to court.

(George Foreman passed away in March 2025, 7 months after this was published.)

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