Boxing heavyweight legend George Foreman has died at the age of 76, his family says.

Known as Big George in the ring, he competed for decades starting in the 1960s, winning numerous championship belts, including Olympic gold medals and two world heavyweight titles.

He lost his first title to Muhammad Ali in their famous Rumble in the Jungle fight in 1974. But Foreman’s professional boxing career was marked by an astonishing total of 76 wins and 68 knockouts, double Ali’s. Foreman lost five fights during his career.

He won his first world heavyweight title in 1973 and did it again in 1994 at the age of 45. He retired from the sport in 1997 before finding fame and fortune again as a pitchman for a best-selling grill bearing his name.

In a post on Instagram on Friday night, his family said: “Our hearts are broken.

“A devoted preacher, devoted husband, loving father and proud grandfather and great-grandfather, he lived a life marked by unwavering faith, humility and purpose.”

The statement added: “A humanitarian, an Olympian and two-time world heavyweight champion, he was deeply respected – a force for good, a man of discipline, conviction and a defender of his heritage, who fought tirelessly to protect his good name – for his family.”

Foreman was born on January 10, 1949, in Marshall, Texas, and raised six siblings by a single mother in the segregated American South.

He dropped out of school and turned to street robbery before finally entering the ring.

Foreman won the heavyweight gold medal at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, where he was 19 years old, and later turned professional, winning 37 consecutive fights.

He defeated the previously undefeated reigning champion Joe Frazier in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1973, knocking him down six times in the first two rounds.

His 1974 Rumble in the Jungle against Ali in Kinshasa, Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is one of the most famous boxing matches of all time.

The older man, Ali, The weakest man since losing his crown seven years earlier for refusing to be drafted into the Vietnam War.

Foreman later said: “I went out there and said I was going to kill him, and people said, ‘Please, don’t say you’re going to kill Muhammad.’

“So I said, ‘Okay, I’ll put him down.’ That’s how easy the fight was going to be.”

But the cunning Ali used a tactic, which later became known as the “rope-a-dope,” which led to Foreman landing hundreds of punches, and in the eighth round, Ali knocked him out.

After a second professional defeat, Foreman retired in 1977 and became the ordained pastor of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Texas, which he founded and built.

“We began meeting informally in various homes in Houston, and before long, the crowds were so large that most of the homes could not accommodate them,” Foreman said on his website about his preaching.

“Eventually, we bought land and an old, dilapidated building northeast of Houston.”

Foreman came out of retirement in 1987 to raise money for a youth center he had started. He won 24 fights before losing to Evander Holyfield after 12 rounds in 1991.

In 1994, Foreman defeated the undefeated Michael Moore to become the oldest heavyweight champion at age 45.

He became an advertising pitchman for his George Foreman grill, which has sold millions since it was introduced in 1994, thanks to his memorable catchphrase, “The Lean Mean Grilling Machine.”

Foreman has been married five times. He has a dozen children. Five of his sons are named George.

He explained on his website that he named them after himself, so they “always have something in common.”

“I tell them, “‘If one of us goes up, we all go up together,’ he explained. ‘If one of us goes down, we all go down together!'”