Up for auction “Heavyweight Champion” George Foreman Hand Signed 8X10 Color Photo.  

ES-9385E

George Edward Foreman (born January 10,

1949) is an American former professional boxer,

entrepreneur, minister and author. In boxing, he was nicknamed "Big

George" and competed between 1967 and 1997. He is a two-time

world heavyweight champion and an Olympic gold

medalist. As an entrepreneur, he is known for the George Foreman Grill. After

a troubled childhood, 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 stunning second-round knockout of then-undefeated Joe Frazier in 1973. He defended the belt twice before

suffering his first professional loss to Muhammad Ali in the iconic 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 won the unified WBA, IBF, and lineal heavyweight

championship titles by knocking out 26-year-old Michael Moorer. He dropped the WBA belt rather than face his

mandatory title defense soon after, and following a single successful title

defense against Axel Schulz, Foreman relinquished his IBF

title as well on June 28, 1995. At 46 years and 169 days old, he was the oldest world heavyweight champion in history. Foreman is the

oldest to ever win the world heavyweight boxing championship of major honors,

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 (68 knockouts) and 5 losses. Foreman has been

inducted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame and International Boxing Hall of

Fame. The International Boxing Research Organization rates Foreman

as the eighth-greatest heavyweight of all time. In 2002, he was named one of

the 25 greatest fighters of the past 80 years by The Ring. The

Ring ranked him as the ninth-greatest puncher of all time. He was a

ringside analyst for HBO's boxing coverage for 12 years until 2004. Outside

boxing, he is a successful  entrepreneur

and known for his promotion of the George Foreman Grill,

which has sold more than 100 million units worldwide. In 1999, he sold the

commercial rights to the grill for $138 million.