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A Gravestone for Matthew Saad Muhammad

3/23/2015

PHILADELPHIA – Like many heroes of Philadelphia boxing, former light heavyweight champion Matthew Saad Muhammad currently lies in an unmarked grave. He was perhaps the most exciting fighter ever to come out this great fight town, and the web site PhillyBoxingHistory.com is on a mission to honor the boxing idol, who passed away on May 25, 2014.

“There will never be another fighter like Saad Muhammad,” said John DiSanto, founder and editor of PhillyBoxingHistory.com. “His fights were so amazing. As far as excitement, he was on a completely different level than anyone else I’ve ever seen – in Philly or outside of Philly.”

In recent years, PhillyBoxingHistory.com has raised funds to purchase and place gravestones for four other Philly boxing icons, Tyrone Everett, Gypsy Joe Harris, Garnet "Sugar" Hart and Eddie Cool. The gravestone for Saad Muhammad is the site’s fifth such effort.

“Saad Muhammad gave us everything he had in the boxing ring,” DiSanto said. “A week doesn’t go by without his name coming up and someone reminiscing about how incredible his fights were. He gave us memories that we’ll be talking about for the rest of our lives. Now it is time for us to return the favor.”

An online campaign has been set up to raise the funds needed for the various costs and fees related to the purchase and placement of the gravestone. Anyone willing to contribute to the cause can make a credit card donation at www.gofundme.com/p5o104.

Those who prefer to make a donation by check or money order, should make their contribution payable to “Gravestone Fund / Fairhill Street Productions”, and mail it to:
Fairhill Street Productions / Philly Boxing History Gravestone Fund
PO Box 428
Sewell, NJ 08080

“We can’t do this without the support of boxing fans who want to remember and honor Matthew Saad Muhammad,” DiSanto said. “Please consider getting involved and being part of this tribute to one of the greatest warriors in ring history.”

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In The Ring with Roy Foreman - The Business of Boxing Part 02

3/21/2015

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Added by American Business Television Network on March 21, 2015

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In The Ring With Roy Foreman - Sergey Kovalev vs. Jean Pascal

3/13/2015

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American Business Television added by Staff Writer on March 14, 2015

In The Ring with Roy Foreman. Sergey Kovalev vs. Jean Pascal, 12 rounds, for Kovalev’s IBF/WBO/WBA light heavyweight title

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In The Ring with Roy Foreman - The Business of Boxing

3/11/2015

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American Business Television by Staff Writer on March 12, 2015

The Business of BOXING, Floyd Mayweather vs Manny Pacquiao $300 Million Dollar Pay Day?

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George Foreman: Still knocking 'em out

3/6/2015

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by Daniel Roberts @readDanwrite March 6, 2015, 9:00 AM EST

The ex–heavyweight champ, current minister and pitchman, is testament to the power of reinvention. And he isn’t done yet.

George Foreman’s business philosophy can be reduced to three words: Never say no.

“Don’t ever stop earning,” he says. “It’s a curse to think you have enough. There is never enough. George Foreman, Bill Gates—anyone. Money has to be spent. It is not made to be saved.” Hence, it must be replenished, and replenish it Foreman does. You want to pay him $10,000 to share some tales with your business group of his days as heavyweight champ? He’s there. “I remember my first million-dollar check for a boxing match,” Foreman says. “What a joy. And then my first $5 million check. What a joy. But today I can go out and get a $5,000 check, and the joy is as great. Because I’m earning.”

At 66, Foreman could stop. He has already cycled through at least four careers in a life that defines the word “reinvention”: Muscled, scowling boxing champ; born-again minister; genial, flabby comeback king; and pitchman for Nike NKE -1.57% , McDonald’s MCD -2.00% , Meineke, and most famously, the namesake grill whose rights earned him a $137 million lifetime deal.

Foreman may still have a few more acts in him. In 2013 he started a boxing-promotion business. And now he’s preparing to launch a whole new enterprise: an online butcher’s store, because, of course, people need meat to cook on their George Foreman grill.

He is often in motion but rarely in a hurry these days. Foreman lives on a gated 45-acre property not far from Houston. On a mild February day he offers a tour via golf cart. He points out the tennis court—which he has never used—and the stables. (Foreman keeps most of his 50 horses on his ranch in Marshall.) He opens a garage that boasts 38 cars. Ferrari, Porsche, Maybach, Tesla TSLA -3.17% —you name it, he has one. Foreman says the best model he ever owned was a 1977 VW Bug; that’s in there too. Does Foreman really need such big collections? No, he admits, but the horses keep breeding (“You’ve heard the expression ‘Be fruitful and multiply’?”), and he’s easily sold on cars: “I see these commercials and say, ‘Boy, I’ve got to have that …’ I need to stop."

At a professed 255 pounds, Foreman is still at his (comeback) fighting weight. He insists he works out daily, but there are as many toys (they belong to his grandkids) littering the floor of his workout room as there are weights. There’s also a huge George Foreman grill—which he says he uses right after he exercises—a few feet away.

Foreman stays plenty busy. His only day of rest is Monday. On Tuesdays, he says, “I try to take care of whatever business I have.” Wednesdays he ministers and tries to stop by the youth center that he founded 30 years ago. On Fridays he and his wife head to the ranch, where he raises horses and Black Angus cattle. When the couple arrive at the ranch, he says, his wife feels “instantly relaxed. But after two days I say, ‘Let’s leave!’ ” On Saturday evenings and Sundays he preaches and teaches Sunday school. The preaching is a job. Speeches, endorsements—those are jobs too. “The best thing that can ever happen to a human being is a job,” he says. “You don’t have a job, you’re going to die!"

Foreman at his home, outside Houston.Photograph by Ben Sklar

Foreman was initially wary of hawking products, but an unexpected phone call in 1990 changed that. He was in an Atlantic City hotel, early on in his boxing comeback, when Bill Cosby called out of the blue. Decades before, Foreman had appeared on The Dating Game with Cosby’s brother Bob. Foreman told Cosby he was getting endorsement offers but said, “I don’t want to be on TV saying this and that.” Cosby admonished him, he says: “Come on, man. You’re no different from any other boy. You want to be on television; you want to be known. If you don’t take them, I’ll take them.” From then on, Foreman was all in as a pitchman.

Foreman at a McDonald’s in Houston in 1991.Photograph by David Scarbrough — AP

Now, of course, he has his own ventures. Coming soon: George Foreman’s Butcher Shop, an online meat company—Omaha Steaks for the Internet age. It will sell all-natural Black Angus beef from small family farms, with an emphasis on quality and healthfulness. “These days,” Foreman says, “you want to know about the cow’s brother, sister, the spot he stood on. The grill was about health. And now I can spell it out to people with this food.”

Meanwhile, Foreman—“Big George”—has been in business with three of his five sons, all named George. George IV (“Bigwheel”) is his dad’s publicist and is working on the meat company. Two years ago Big George and George Jr. launched Foreman Boys Promotions, which has partnered with Bob Arum’s Top Rank to put on seven fights in Macau and a few in Texas. Arum was Big George’s promoter for his comeback, and he says Foreman is evidence that complete reinvention is possible. When Foreman first called him in 1987, Arum says, “I was not enthusiastic, realizing what a horrid person he had been.” Arum says Foreman’s personality was so altered that he suspected a con. “But it wasn’t a con,” Arum says he came to realize. “He had really changed."

Foreman is happy as an entrepreneur, the boxing mostly an ancient memory for him. But every now and again, he says, he’ll cue up a tape of the Rumble in the Jungle, the 1974 classic in which the fearsome young incarnation of Foreman was knocked out, in one of boxing’s great upsets, by Muhammad Ali.

Foreman on the mat in the Ali fight.

“If I watch it 100 times,” Foreman says, “each time I still think I’m going to win.” He eventually transformed that haunting defeat into a new life, and he’s healthy today, while Ali is burdened by Parkinson’s. Improbably, perhaps, the two are now friends. On Foreman’s last birthday, he says, one of Ali’s daughters FaceTimed him and held the phone up for Ali. “He doesn’t talk much now,” says Foreman, “but when she says, ‘Look, Dad, it’s George!’ then he looks up, and all he has to do is raise those eyes, and everything else comes to life. The guy is still a star. I love this friendship.” Foreman grins. He’s earned it.

For more great business stories in our ongoing Pro-Files series check out both Fortune.com and SI.com

This story is from the March 15, 2015 issue of Fortune.

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Life By Wisdom

3/3/2015

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K.O.

No draws, No losses, No disqualifications

As I step into the ring, I know my Covering.

Because before I know it, Round 1 will be done and Round 4,

I’ll be asking for more.

Looking for another scout to knock out.

The power is in my hand but the promises are in my reach.

So I have to stretch in order to claim that which I preach.

I am not a bleeder cause my Redeemer died on the cross and shed blood with the determination to be my Keeper.

No matter how many times I go down my trinity combination is sweeter.

1 for the Father, 2 for the Son, and 3 for the Holy Spirit.

So nothing left for my opponent to do but to be a standing 8 count.

Consumed with so much doubt cause he didn’t have the confidence that he would win this bout.

Failing to realize the confidence is neither in the jab nor the uppercut but in my Judge, who make righteous decisions, removing the heavy weight, middle weight, and the light weight.

Because He is my Eternal mouthpiece and stands in a neutral corner waiting for me to do the footwork and recognize He is my Ultimate Promoter.

The King but not Don.

Saved by the bell, No, Saved from hell.

Enlarging my territory, He is the Fore-man of the Holy-field and an Ali, and provides the Sugar Rays I need, so I don’t end in a Ty-Son surpassing even the Jones’ who Hop-kins no matter what May-weather the storm.

I had to take heed to the cautions cause after the warning.

I just want to weave to see His renewed mercies in the new dawning.

His angels protect me and do the blocking so I can break free and clinch to the frankincense of sweet science.

Adding to my record that has nothing to do with violence and everything to do with Faith and patience.

Leaving people asking have you ever been K.O.’ed?

Answer is, I am Kingdom Owned not Knocked Out and my Manager says

Victory is mine, so why should I wait when I know it’s on the way.

http://www.lifebywisdom.com/product/ko-short-sleeve-t-shirt

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A Gravestone for Matthew Saad Muhammad

In The Ring with Roy Foreman - The Business of Boxing Part 02

In The Ring With Roy Foreman - Sergey Kovalev vs. Jean Pascal

In The Ring with Roy Foreman - The Business of Boxing

George Foreman: Still knocking 'em out

Life By Wisdom

Roy Foreman

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