Boxing’s Greats of the States | Texas: George Foreman

Boxers come from every corner of the globe. Sometimes, fighters are products of their environment, favoring styles prevalent in the country or state from which they hail. Various regions of the United States are considered factories for great fighters, though that certainly is not the case with each state. In this weekly Sherdog.com series, the spotlight will shine on the best boxer of all-time from each of the 50 states. Fighters do not necessarily need to be born in a given state to represent it; they simply need to be associated with it.

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“The Lone Star State” has for years been an assembly line for elite boxers, but George Foreman remains a giant among men within the Sweet Science.

Foreman made a name for himself after winning an Olympic gold medal as a heavyweight at the 1968 Summer Games in Mexico City. The Marshall, Texas, native won his first 40 fights as a professional and quickly earned a reputation as one of the most frightening power punchers in the history of the sport. Foreman was a knockout machine, stopping George Chuvalo, Chuck Wepnar and Gregorio Peralta (twice) before he destroyed future hall of famers Joe Frazier and Ken Norton, winning and retaining the lineal heavyweight championship in the process. He was thought to be invincible until Muhammad Ali knocked him out in the eighth round of their iconic “Rumble in the Jungle” match on Oct. 30, 1974 in Kinshasa, Zaire. Foreman won his next four fights by knockout -- his victims included Frazier and Ron Lyle -- before a 12-round unanimous decision loss to Jimmy Young prompted his surprising 1977 retirement at the age of 28.

“Big George” returned to boxing a decade later and knocked out Dwight Muhammad Qawi, Gerry Cooney and Bert Cooper before challenging Evander Holyfield for the heavyweight championship in 1991. After his failed bid to unseat Holyfield, wins over Jimmy Ellis, Alex Stewart and Pierre Coetzer preceded a June 1993 decision loss to Tommy Morrison. More than a year later, on Nov. 5, 1994, Foreman shocked the world and flattened Michael Moorer with a right hand in the 10th round to become the oldest boxer -- 45 years, 299 days -- to ever win the heavyweight championship. He defended the title on three subsequent occasions before relinquishing it in a 1997 decision defeat to Shannon Briggs.

Foreman retired with a 76-5 record and 68 knockouts. He was enshrined in the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2003, served as a longtime analyst for HBO and made millions with his world-famous George Foreman Grill.

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