SPORTS RECORDS 5: GEORGE FOREMAN, THE OLDEST WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 04 Jan 2025
George Foreman won a gold medal in the heavyweight division in the 1968 Mexico Olympics. He turned professional the next year, and won the world heavyweight title with a very impressive second-round knockout of then undefeated Joe Frazier in 1973.
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He defended the belt twice then he got his first professional loss to Muhammad Ali in the legendary Rumble in the Jungle in 1974. When he failed to secure another title opportunity, Foreman retired after losing to Jimmy Young in 1977.
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Ten years later he made a big ring comeback, and in 1994 at age 45 won the unified WBA, IBF, and lineal heavyweight championship titles by stopping the 26-year-old Michael Moorer. He dropped the WBA belt rather than face his mandatory title defense, and after a successful title defense against Axel Schulz, Foreman relinquished his IBF title on June 28, 1995. At 46 years and 169 days old, he became the oldest world heavyweight champion in history.
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Foreman is the oldest boxer to ever win the world heavyweight boxing championship of the major sanctioning bodies and the second-oldest in any weight class after Bernard Hopkins who was champion at light heavyweight. He retired in 1997 at the age of 48, with a final record of 76 wins with 68 knockouts and 5 losses.
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Foreman has been inducted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame and International Boxing Hall of Fame. The International Boxing Research Organization listed Foreman as the eighth-greatest heavyweight of all time. In 2002, he was included in the 25 greatest fighters of the past 80 years by The Ring. The Ring ranked him as the ninth-greatest puncher of all time.
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Carlos Yulo is the 2024 Olympic gold medalist at the floor exercise and vault events in men's gymnastics. He is the first Filipino and the first male Southeast Asian gymnast to win a medal at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships winning the floor exercise bronze medal in 2018. He also became the first Filipino and Southeast Asian to win a gold medal for the same criteria in 2019 at the same event.
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With multiple medals in the international competition, Yulo is the second person to win an Olympic gold medal for the Philippines, the first person to win multiple Olympic gold medals for the country, and the first Southeast Asian athlete to win multiple gold medals at the Olympic Games.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Maloney L. Samaco.
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