On This Date: George Foreman Wins the Heavyweight Title at 45 (Nov. 5, 1994)

George Foreman lost the heavyweight championship to Muhammad Ali in Zaire in 1974. 20 years later, at 45, he won it back, wearing the same red trunks.

On Nov. 5, 1994, in Las Vegas, Foreman knocked out Michael Moorer with 1 right hand in the 10th round. He was losing on every scorecard when he threw it.

The Preacher

After the Ali fight, Foreman never got another shot at the title. In 1977 he lost a decision to Jimmy Young in Puerto Rico, had what he described as a religious experience in his dressing room and quit boxing.

He spent the next 10 years as a preacher in Houston. In 1987, at 38, he came back to raise money for the youth center he’d started. People laughed. He was heavy and bald and slow, and he fought a long list of nobodies.

But he kept winning. In 1991 he went 12 rounds with heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield and lost a decision. In 1993 he lost again, to Tommy Morrison. That should have been the end.

The Champion

Michael Moorer was 26 and had never lost, 35-0. In April 1994 he beat Holyfield to win the WBA and IBF titles and became the 1st left-handed heavyweight champion.

For his 1st defense, he picked the 45-year-old.

9 Rounds

For 9 rounds, it went the way everybody expected. Moorer was faster and younger, and he hit Foreman with combinations. Foreman’s left eye began to swell. He kept walking forward and kept throwing his jab, but going into the 10th, Moorer led 88-83 on 2 judges’ cards and 86-85 on the 3rd. By one count he had landed 348 punches to Foreman’s 199.

The 10th

Midway through the 10th, Foreman threw a jab and then a short right hand that landed on the point of Moorer’s chin. Moorer went straight down onto his back and lay there looking up, his gloves reaching for the lights. Referee Joe Cortez counted him out at 2:03 of the round.

“I probably got lackadaisical,” Moorer said. “I just got caught.”

Foreman went to his corner and knelt down to pray. His brother Roy fainted in the middle of the ring.

“For all of my old buddies in the nursing homes and in jail,” Foreman said afterward, “I remember the old saying, ‘When you wish upon a star, you can accomplish anything.’” Then he said he wanted to get home to Houston in time for his Sunday service.

He was the oldest man ever to win the heavyweight championship, by about 8 years, and it had been 20 years and 6 days since he lost the title to Ali. He was wearing the same red trunks he’d worn in Kinshasa.

“That was the single biggest punch in boxing history,” said promoter Bob Arum.

What Came After

Foreman fought on until 1997 and retired for good at 48. By then most people knew him less as a fighter than as the smiling man selling the George Foreman Grill, which made him far more money than boxing ever did.

He died in March 2025, at 76.