George Foreman was one of those guys who I expected would be around forever.

When I was growing up, I knew George Foreman as the good-natured boxer who would throw punches for 12 rounds and then make jokes immediately afterwards.  On HBO, he was usually the commentator who showed the most concern for the well-being of the fighters in the ring.  On that infamous night in 1997, when Oliver McCall had an apparent mental breakdown while facing Lennox Lewis in the ring, while the other ring announcers spent their time talking about how bad the night was for the sport and how Don King was destroying the integrity of HBO Boxing, George Foreman was the only one to express any concern about what was happening in Oliver McCall’s head and to say that he hoped McCall would be okay once the fight ended.  That made a big impression on me.  George Foreman may have fought for a living but he never gave up his humanity.

It was only later that I saw the clips of young George Foreman, fighting Ali in Zaire, and I realized how intimidating Foreman had been before he made his comeback in his 40s.  Foreman said that losing Ali in Zaire hurt, both because of the defeat and also Ali’s constant taunting.  Foreman, who famously declined to join in the protests when he was on the 1968 U.S. Olympic team, resented Ali’s claim that Foreman was a sell-out.  (These were the same accusations that Ali tossed at every opponent that he fought but for Foreman, someone who had struggled with poverty when he was younger and who credited boxing with saving him from a life of crime and prison, they especially stung.)  Foreman could have joined Joe Frazier in spending his entire life bitter over his treatment by Ali but Foreman forgave him.  When the documentary about the fight, When We Were Kings, won the Oscar for best documentary, Foreman was at the ceremony with Ali and helped his former opponent step up the stairs to the podium.

George Foreman in Zaire

It’s always hard to believe that the scowling and uncommunicative Foreman of the 70s was the same George Foreman who became an American institution, selling the George Foreman Grill and proving that he still had what it took to be a champion at age 45.  Foreman credited finding religion with giving him a new outlook on life.  At the same time he was making his comeback in the ring, Foreman was working as a minister and working with at-risk youth in Houston.  He was a man who found success but he was also a man who gave back.

Foreman didn’t win every fight.  He lost to Ali in Zaire and to Jimmy Young in Puerto Rico.  After he made his comeback, he lost to Evander Holyfield, Tommy Morrison, and Shannon Briggs.  Holyfield and even Morrison won their fights fair and square.  (Morrison was booed after he won not because he didn’t deserve the victory but because he was Tommy Morrison.)  A lot of people, including me, felt that Foreman was robbed by the judges when it came to the Briggs fight but Foreman accepted the decision with grace.  As I get older, I feel more and more appreciation for what George Foreman accomplished.  He made a comeback when most people had written him off and he did it with humor and humility.

Yesterday, Big George Foreman passed away at 76.  I’ll miss him.