Wrap-Up: Remembering George Foreman plus Crawford, Jake Paul, more

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03/23/2025 11:32 AM

George Foreman passed away this week at age 76 | Getty Images

The sports world lost one of its all-time greats with the passing of George Foreman, plus more from this week in boxing.

George Foreman: 1949-2025

One of boxing's all-time great fighters and personalities, George Foreman passed away this week at the age of 76.

An Olympic gold medalist in 1968, a 76-win professional and two-time world heavyweight champion at ages 24 and 46, a minister, a Hall of Fame-level pitchman, and so much more. Foreman went from a menacing in-ring brutalizer in the 70s to a beloved, soft-bellied underdog who captured the imaginations of the sports world when he made his comeback in the late 80s into the mid-90s, and all the while he maintained the same ferocious, one-punch power, from Mexico City in '68 to "It happened!" in 1994.

Our community remembers George Foreman:

Boxingjim

Big George had one of the most emphatic HW Championship winning performances (KO2 of unbeaten future HoFer Joe Frazier), won probably the most entertaining slugfest of significance in the division's history (KO4 Ron Lyle), authored a few of the best knockouts the division ever saw (my favorite is his drive-by pummeling of Gerry Cooney), won the title twice an inconceivable 21 years apart, and lost his title to Ali in probably the most famous boxing match of all time.

You simply cannot write the history of boxing without George Foreman. What better career legacy could you ask for?

Rest easy, Big George.

Hutchy

Holyfield told the funniest story of George's power when George caught him in the 11th and hit him so hard he split holyfields mouthpiece clean in two and knocked him out on his feet for a split second (george unfortunately was too tired to do anything about it). Holyfield goes back to the corner half out on his feet and starts ranting that george knocked all his teeth out and to stop the fight lol I'm not doing it justice, I strongly suggest YouTube to hear holyfield tell it. Rip champ.

Verklemptomaniac

I'd probably seen a few fights before that, but the first fight I remember watching was Foreman/Moorer, sitting in my parents room (because they were in the den and their room was the only other one that got HBO.)

As maddeningly frustrating as boxing can be sometime (oftentimes), there's nothing like it when it's great. And Foreman was involved in some of the greatest moments in boxing history.

ozzy616

Would have been a 3-time world heavyweight champion at the age of 48 if not for corrupt judges in the Briggs fight.

Still an amazing achievement winning the world title for a second time at 45.

A legend in and out of the ring & one of the most dangerous heavyweight fighters of all-time. A world champion during the greatest heavyweight decade.

RIP Big George & condolences to family and friends at such an awful time.

connorbennseggs

He's probably best remembered for his second life as champion and the whole narrative behind the comeback, the last round KO of Moorer and so on but he was probably the second-best heavyweight in the greatest heavyweight era in history. A top five ATG at heavyweight without question and a truly good guy to boot. His destructions of Frazier and Norton were chilling, and without a dance partner for the Rumble Ali would not be quite so revered as he is. It took Frazier and Foreman to bring out the best in the Greatest.

Matt Mosley

RIP Big George.

Love how he came back and re-invented himself multiple times in his life, inside the ring and outside.

A real success story and a great example of persistence paying off.

I especially like how he turned from knockout puncher to more cerebral, technical George in the second phase of his career.

He still had that power but really showed his skills too, esp for such a big guy (maybe not that unusually big nowadays but in his time he was).

MostDangerous

One thing that gets me about Big George that almost never gets mentioned is how insanely fast his progress was. I didn't even know it until I watched his pretty bad biopic a few months ago

Anthony Joshua started boxing at 18 and took 5 years until he won the Gold medal. Wilder started at 20 and took 3 years before he won bronze.

Big George started boxing at 16 and won the Gold medal a little over a year later. Stopping a decorated amateur who had a decade more experience and over 200 bouts. That's such an unbelievable feat. He only had 26 amateur fights.

Phill

I was lucky enough to have met him at Caesars Palace back in 2002 when I went to watch Barrera v Morales 2. He was there for the fight.

He was such a polite and gracious man, hands like shovels, but with a gentle handshake. I literally could not believe I'd actually had the chance not only to meet him but to talk about the upcoming fight.

It was a brief moment in my life that I will never forget. RIP Mr Foreman.

More from this week in boxing:

Sebastian Fundora made quick work of Chordale Booker to retain his 154 lb titles on Saturday night, with the card also featuring a pretty terrible decision that favored young Elijah Garcia over veteran Terrell Gausha, plus a win for Jesus Ramos Jr.

aceknighthigh

Fundora is just fun man. A genuinely nice guy from a nice, Boxing family who puts it on people in the ring. Sloppy defense and his feet are a bit slow but he's got a lot of offensive tools, a good chin, some legit pop....also, it might not be the most notable, but he's just a bit tall for the weight class.

Oh and I loved the pacing. 3 or 4 meaningful fights, and done well before 11 PM ET is the way to go. No all day events with 3 concerts, and 60 minutes of selling me on something I'm already here to watch.

Also on Saturday, George Kambosos Jr made his move up to 140 with a win over a spirited and tough Jake Wyllie, who subbed in on late notice and gave his true best in a good fight. Kambosos is now taking aim at Richardson Hitchins and the IBF title.

Dorrian_Grey

Hitchins would box Kambosos' ears off. He's essentially a bigger, harder-hitting version of Devin Haney (and imo better than Haney), he's the worst possible style matchup for Kambosos out of the 140 champs.

In news that probably won't surprise anyone, Terence "Bud" Crawford reportedly has no plans to return to the 154 lb division, whatever happens when he moves up to 168 to face Canelo Alvarez in September. Crawford is (1) smart about this sort of thing, and understands that trying to boil back down to 154 after doing a full camp for 168 would be arguably even more risky than moving to 168 at all, and (2) let's be honest, Bud Crawford isn't going to fight that many more times, and there's a reasonable chance Canelo is going to be his last fight. He's 37 now and has made no secret of the fact that he's chasing the biggest money possible no matter what the public thinks of a fight.
With that Crawford news, we know that the WBO has eliminated Crawford's claim to their interim title at 154, and that President Gustavo Olivieri says he will recommend Xander Zayas get an order to face Sebastian Fundora next.
Speaking of Canelo vs Crawford, Dmitry Bivol gave his thoughts on the matchup.
Jake Paul says he wants to fight Anthony Joshua, and "knows" he will "beat his ass," but that he would never fight David Benavidez. "I know my boundaries," he said, adding that he would "fucking die" in the ring with Benavidez. Many have pointed out that Paul has actually fought one professional boxer who was of any remote quality and that he lost to Tommy Fury, who is several billion miles from the level of Benavidez or Joshua, and I will again add that the last time someone put Anthony Joshua in the ring with a novelty boxer, Francis Ngannou got demolished so badly that he actually had to go honor his contract with PFL.
Paul's Most Valuable Promotions signed undisputed 130 lb champion Alycia Baumgardner, who would be a potential opponent for the Taylor vs Serrano 3 winner or loser after that July 11 event.
Turki Alalshikh gave us a bit more of a look into his plans in the boxing world.
Boxing will be part of the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028, so the sport has gotten through another cycle without being kicked out of the Olympics. It's been a consistent worry for years now, but as long as World Boxing can hold its ground for a while and pick up some more momentum — seems likely now that they are IOC-affiliated — boxing may get a stress breather between Olympics for a bit.
Jai Opetaia will defend his cruiserweight title on May 13 against Claudio Squeo, and he's not thrilled about facing Squeo instead of Gilberto "Zurdo" Ramirez, believing the only explanation is that Zurdo doesn't want to fight him.
Eimantas Stanionis says he's very confident ahead of his April 12 welterweight unification with Jaron "Boots" Ennis.
Top Rank's May 10 card in San Diego will be headlined by Emanuel Navarrete defending his 130 lb title against Charly Suarez.
Badou Jack will defend the WBC cruiserweight title against Ryan Rozicki on the Canelo vs Scull card on May 3. Jack hasn't fought since February 2023 when he won that title, and at one point Norair Mikaeljan won the vacant belt against Ilunga Junior Makabu, but now Mikaeljan isn't fighting (hasn't since November 2023) and Jack is recognized as champ again. Whatever!
Angelo Leo will go to Japan on May 24 to defend his featherweight title against Tomoki Kameda. Yes, Tomoki Kameda is still an active fighter! There will also be two title fights in Japan on May 28, with Yoshiki Takei defending his bantamweight belt against Yuttapong Tongdee and Eduardo Nunez facing Masanori Rikiishi for the vacant IBF belt at 130.
The WBC has ordered a super featherweight eliminator between Eduardo "Rocky" Hernandez and Mark Magsayo, which could really be a terrific fight.

Wrap-Up: Remembering George Foreman plus Crawford, Jake Paul, more

George Foreman: 1949-2025

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