Houston – George Foreman was remembered on Monday in a funeral service in his hometown of Houston for the legendary boxing career, as well as for the love of God, family, horses and cheeseburgers and for the desire to lend a hand his neighbors.

“Love was all the time. That’s what this life is about. It’s about love, and George was spotless because George lived and believed in what he proclaimed,” said James Douglas, a longtime friend and former president of the University of Southern Texas in Houston.

During almost 1.5 hours of funeral service, the Foreman and Friends family reminded anecdotes about a man who was a two-time hefty boxing champion, but he was also a pastor who provided sermons confirming life in his church in the north-eastern Houston and an experienced businessman best known from George Foreman Grill.

Foreman even turned to the crowd posthumously at the Wortham Theater Center, a stage center of art in which a monument hosted, with previous audio messages.

“Victory and losing can never provide a lasting smile. But speaking on the face you see every day,” I did my best, “said Foreman on the recording.

Many people who spoke in the monument, including George Foreman IV, one of the five sons of the boxing legend, emphasized the importance of faith in the life of an older foreman and the way God managed his efforts to lend a hand others.

“How well I remember how Jesus moved me? I prayed, walked at night or two. I said: Lord, why don’t you take me and exploit me? That’s all I can do. He gives me my life to Jesus, what about you?” It was a song that my grandmother gave my father.

Foreman had 12 children, including five sons who are renowned for the name of George Edward Foreman.

“Rest well, dad. We will always wear your love,” said George Foreman IV, who is also a pastor.

Former boxer Michael Moorerer, whom the foreman defeated in 1994 to become the oldest man at the age of 45, who won the championship in hefty weight, told the crowd that they both went from competitors to the relationship “based on respect for over 30 years”.

“George was a champion in his life. His faith transformed a shy boy from Texas into a successful businessman and a voice for less happiness,” said Moorer.

Dr. Adan Rios, a longtime friend of boxing, remembered how Foreman bought land to create a food bank for patients with AIDS and donated $ 1.7 million to lend a hand treat patients with cancer teenagers.

Foreman died on March 21 at the age of 76. Foreman’s family did not reveal their cause of death, saying only in social media that “he left calmly … in the environment of loved ones.”

Born in Marshall, Texas, the foreman grew up in the fifth branch of Houston, one of the historically black districts of the city.

In 1968 he began his boxing career as a golden Olympic medalist, changing the professional the following year.

Foreman became a heavyweight champion when he defeated Joe Frazier in 1973. But he lost the title the following year, when Muhammad Ali defeated Foreman in the renowned fight “Rumble in the Jungle” in Zaire.

Then the foreman gave up boxing and after religious waking up and became an ordained minister in 1978. He began to preach in Houston, later founded the church of Jesus Christ in 1980.

A middle-aged fighter returned to the ring after 10 years of absence, and in 1994 he broke one of the most spectacular knockout in boxing history, floor, moral-year-old his junior-from surgical right hand to demand two hefty lanes of a humid truck.

Foreman retired in 1997 with a career record 76-5.

Then he moved to the next chapter in his life as a businessman, Pitchman and an occasional actor.

He became known to the novel generation as the face of George Foreman Grill. A straightforward cooking machine sold over 100 million pieces and brought him more wealth than boxing. A biographical film based on his life was released in 2023.

“Of all the features I could mention, his faith, his family, boxing career, business career, the one who distinguishes me as a friend of George Foreman, never forgot where he came from,” said Mayor Houston John Whitmire.