He might not have been one of the greatest boxers of all time, but George Foreman — for railing against the crushing inevitability of age — demands an entry on our list (and what’s more, one doesn’t argue with a boxer). After retiring from the sport as a rather grizzled bruiser in the 1970s, the lovable heavyweight — and there’s a sporting oxymoron if ever there was one — got back into the ring a decade later, claiming that his primary motive was to raise money to fund his youth center. (Foreman had become a successful entrepreneur in his time off, as buyers of his famous George Foreman grills can attest).
But in 1994, at the age of 45, Foreman took on Michael Moorer. Wearing the same pair of red trunks he had donned for his defeat of Muhammad Ali in 1974, he knocked out Moorer with a trademark jab in the 10th to capture the IBF and WBA titles. As he knelt in prayer, the crowd cheered the oldest man to ever win a world heavyweight crown, breaking the record for the longest interval between one world championship and the next.