MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) – A Minnesota woman is grieving the death of her father – legendary boxer and heavyweight champ George Foreman – after he died in Texas last week.

Daughter remembers Joe Foreman

What we know:

Most of us knew him from moments like The Rumble in the Jungle.

But Michi Foreman who knew him as simply as “dad.”

“He was a big kid, he played with us like he was one of the kids and all of a sudden try to be serious,” Michi Foreman tells FOX 9.

Final moments with her father

What they’re saying:

Now Michi is mourning the loss of her father, who she says lived an extraordinary life.

“The last time I saw my father, the life was sort of just not there,” said Foreman.

She tells FOX 9 her father was more than just someone who took on Muhammad Ali.

He was a pillar in her life, a preacher, and someone who often gave her wisdom. She believes his cause of death was from all those years in the ring.
“I told my brothers and sister, I said he’s tired. And they were like, yeah, but he’s still fighting. I said, sit back and let God do his work. And two hours later, he was gone,” said Foreman. 

Foreman fighting as dad

A daddy’s girl:

Michi says she has known her father to be a fighter since she was little. She went to see her father fight during his comeback, but it wasn’t easy.

“You can’t see someone you love like that get hit,” said Foreman.

She remembers when he became the champ once again.

“Everybody was cheering for him, and he won the second time the championship of the world. Went straight down to his knees after the fight, and prayed and thanked God,” said Foreman.

Michi also talked about how her father was sensitive and cared about people.

Whenever a celebrity was going through adversity, he’d give them a call to check on them.

Naming of the sons

Dig deeper:

Foreman has seven daughters and five sons. All of the sons are named after him.

“He was like, well, I don’t want any of my sons to feel like they’re less than the other one,” said Foreman.

The Minneapolis Police Department is seeing a surge in the number of experienced officers joining the force. 

The need for more officers in Minneapolis is drastic, losing hundreds following the murder of George Floyd — the fewer officers has led to longer 911 response times, officer burnout, to less focus on investigations with investigators needing to be on patrol. 

But progress to rebuild is being made — the department reports gaining 38 officers last year, including 22 “lateral hires,” which are officers that join from a different agency. That nearly two dozen is more than four times the number the year before.  

MPD lateral hires, according to MPD.

• 2016-2020: 0
• 2021: 3
• 2022: 8
• 2023: 5
• 2024: 22
• 2025: 3 (as of March 27)

“I was looking for some different leadership,” Heather Starry, who joined MPD as a lateral hire from a metro police department in 2024, said. “It’s been nothing but positive here, and I think that really builds morale.”

For patrol officer Liban Ibrahim, who also joined in 2024 from the Metro Transit Police Department, it was the police chief that drew him to Minneapolis. 

“I saw the changes that [were] happening here after Chief O’Hara got here,” Ibrahim said. 

And William Nkata, joining from another metro department, also wanted to be part of the change. 

“Even after everything that the city went through, I felt like was still a good city. There still is good in the city,” Nkata added. 

The frequency in lateral hires happening around the state is somewhat new for the industry, according to Jim Mortenson, who is with one of the state’s largest unions — the Law Enforcement Labor Services, which doesn’t represent MPD officers.  

“Sometimes chasing it because it’s leadership issues, sometimes chasing it for geography issues, sometimes chasing it for financial issues,” Mortenson said of lateral hires. 

He adds, though, that it’s not a long-term solution for a statewide issue. 

“We’re currently a little over 1,000 officers down in the state,” Mortenson said. “We’ve got too many people that are no longer in this profession, and we don’t have enough people coming into the profession.”

Minneapolis needs to build their force back up for many reasons, including to fulfill the city charter, which requires 731 officers — the department says they’re 148 short, as of this March.

MPD also says there are nearly 60 Community Service Officers and Cadets working to become officers — those two avenues take longer to hit the streets compared to lateral hires.