Houston To Honor George Foreman: Boxer, Pitchman, Humanitarian, and Broadcaster

A public memorial service to celebrate the life of boxing champion George Foreman is planned for Monday at his hometown of Houston, Texas. Family, friends, and fans will gather at the Wortham Theater Center to pay homage to Foreman, who died last month at age 76.Foreman left a rich legacy that words can’t fully capture. He had many gifts and talents, touching people in different ways. He won a gold medal at the racially charged 1968 Olympics at Mexico City, captured and reclaimed the heavyweight championship of the world 20 years apart, became an ordained minister, founded a youth center, and sold millions of George Foreman grills.Ross Greenburg remembers Foreman as one of the best boxing analysts ever on television, a role he served on HBO’s World Championship Boxing from 1992 to 2004. Mr. Greenburg recalled recently how he needed an analyst to replace Sugar Ray Leonard, who was no longer welcome at HBO after deciding to end a two-year absence from the ring and fight Terry Norris on rival Showtime. Mr. Greenburg, an executive producer and later president of HBO Sports, had only one person in mind to fill the ringside seat next to Jim Lampley and Larry Merchant: Foreman.“I had the idea to make him a broadcaster,” Mr. Greenburg tells The New York Sun. “He’d emerged with his new image, and he was campaigning to re-enter boxing, and you could see his personality just jumping through. So I immediately thought of him.”Foreman would need convincing to accept an offer to be a broadcaster. It seems so natural in hindsight, but the boxer-turned-preacher-turned-boxer again wasn’t sure if he would be good at critiquing a fight.He certainly knew boxing. In 1973, Foreman won the heavyweight title for the first time by knocking down Joe Frazier six times at Kingston, Jamaica, before the fight was stopped in the second round.Feared for his brute power and menacing stare, Foreman was a huge favorite to defeat Ali in 1974. But Ali used the “Rope-a-dope” technique to score the legendary upset when he dramatically knocked out an exhausted Foreman in the eighth round at Kinshasa, Zaire. Foreman quit boxing three years later after losing to Jimmy Young.Presumably done with the sport, he founded a church and a youth center at Houston until a need for finances to support his endeavors forced him back into the ring after a ten-year absence.The comeback began in 1987 and got serious when he defeated Gerry Cooney in 1990 and signed for a title shot against Evander Holyfield in 1991. During his comeback, Foreman drew attention for claiming he trained by eating cheeseburgers. The bully from Zaire was gone, replaced by a likable personality who grinned all the time.“He was creating this happy-go-lucky 38-year-old who was going to prove everybody wrong about somebody at that age coming back and winning the heavyweight title,” Mr. Greenburg said. “Everyone was taking to him. He showed incredible charisma and character.”That’s what brought Mr. Greenburg to Houston in 1991. He knew getting Foreman to call fights would not be an easy sell. For one, Foreman had to take a redeye back to Houston to preach every Sunday morning, a commitment he fulfilled throughout his broadcasting career.“I knew I would have to meet him face to face, one-on-one to get this done, so I flew to Houston, which I’d never done for any other broadcaster,” Mr. Greenburg said. “I knew he was a little anxious about whether it would work on television.”The two men chatted for about an hour with Mr. Greenburg telling Foreman that he would be a great boxing analyst and have the kind of ringside chemistry with Messrs. Merchant and Lampley that Frank Gifford, Don Meredith, and Howard Cosell enjoyed in the early years of Monday Night Football.After their chat, Foreman invited Mr. Greenburg to tour the George Foreman Youth and Community Center, a place for children of all denominations. It was important for Foreman to show Mr. Greenburg why he returned to boxing in the first place. “He wanted to make sure I knew what his true purpose was,” Mr. Greenburg said.The television producer left Houston with Foreman agreeing to think about the offer. Less than 48 hours later, he accepted and quickly established himself as a comfortable and knowledgeable voice.While serving as an analyst, Foreman’s boxing comeback continued. At age 42, he waged up a courageous effort before losing by decision to Holyfield in April 1991. Nearly three years later, Foreman got another title shot. He made history in November 1994 by regaining the heavyweight championship with a tenth-round knockout of Moorer. By then, he was in his third year of broadcasting for HBO. “The boxing career continued and we got lightning in a bottle,” Mr. Greenburg said.In retrospect, Foreman was the voice for the last great heyday of boxing with Mike Tyson, Holyfield, Lennox Lewis, Oscar De La Hoya, Julio Cesar Chavez, Pernell Whitaker, Roy Jones Jr., Floyd Mayweather Jr., Arturo Gatti, and James Toney.Ray Stallone, who is a former PR Executive with HBO, marveled at how Foreman, Lampley, and Merchant did every show unscripted. “You never knew what any one of the three would say,” Mr. Stallone told the Sun. “George once barked at Larry, ‘You watch boxing. You don’t know boxing.’ And Larry just laughed.”Foreman 2.0 never lost his smile. He embraced strangers, who will return the embrace on Monday.“The ten years (away from boxing), his belief in God and his preaching gave him the ability to transform himself and people trusted that it was real,” Mr. Greenburg said. “The second George Foreman became the charismatic, joyful, non-bully, who just enjoyed life and boxing. He was nice and accommodating to everyone. He had a consistent smile on his face that was the polar opposite of what you saw ten years earlier. He was just a nice man.”

Houston To Honor George Foreman: Boxer, Pitchman, Humanitarian, and Broadcaster

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