George Foreman is not interested in any barbecue.

It was 1994, and the boxer who was still in an unlikely comeback received what he thought was a novelty. This is an indoor electric grill with a note attached, expressing the hope that Foreman might be interested in approving it. As we all know, Short Order Grill uses a slanted surface to grill food on both sides at the same time, which makes most of the fat drip into the plastic trap.

To Forman, it looks like a toy. Therefore, it sat for six months without using it before his wife Joan insisted on letting him try. Foreman likes hamburgers grilled on the grill and decides to continue using it.

A burger will eventually make him hundreds of millions of dollars.

If you asked Foreman's fans in the heyday of the 1970s and asked them what might be the next step for the famous boxer, few people would predict that he would become a product salesman. Foreman-grumpy, usually frowning, with incredible strength-is one of the most frightening athletes in the sport. Many observers predict that in the "Rumble in the Jungle" held in Zaire on October 30, 1974, he will not only defeat the challenger Muhammad Ali, but will likely harm him severely. But Ali won, and Foreman left the boxing ring soon after.

Foreman returned in 1991 after a ten-year absence, and this time his character was significantly brighter, thanks to his commitment to faith. During his preparations for the game, Foreman is usually relaxed, playing the image of a middle-aged man, freeing himself from his once chiseled physique. He called himself the "cheeseburger champion."

The public's enthusiasm for Forman has only increased, and product endorsement offers have also followed. The more he succeeded in the ring—he defeated Michael Moore in 1994 to regain the heavyweight title—the more advertisers wanted to take advantage of his popularity. In a way, Foreman later recalled that his boxing was a sales job—people need to believe that athletes in their forties are competitive.

In the same year, Michael Boehm, the inventor of Short Order Grill, made a commercial proposal to Foreman, a desktop device that promised to reduce the fat in many cooked meats. Bohm first conducted an experiment.

"What I usually do is start with the simplest component I can find," Boehm told Entrepreneur in 2016. "If you want, I will focus on the proof of concept. In the case of the grill, I heated the cast iron pan, put it at an angle, and started cooking on it. Will the fat be lost? Will the food be cooked? It Done! I was very happy for the first time. Although it was rough, it worked. It proved the concept."

Boehm worked with engineer Robert W. Johnson to obtain a patent for the barbecue grill, but in the crowded consumer goods market, he needed a way to stand out. The affable Foreman is already advertising Meineke Mufflers, which seems to be a good choice. Through a marketing expert familiar with Boehm and Foreman, Boehm reposted his initial prototype. After some reluctance, Foreman agreed to represent it.

Foreman can clearly see what others can't: almost every other company that Boehm has contacted rejected him, thinking that tilt cooking is too unusual for consumers who see grilling as an outdoor (and horizontal) activity. It was eventually manufactured by Salton, Inc., a small appliance manufacturer that also produced Juiceman juicers and Breadman bread machines.

But Forman is only part of the equation. In the 1990s, consumers were ready to regard dietary fat as the enemy, and low-fat snacks like SnackWell were all the rage. For a while, Olestra, an obesity alternative, seemed to be a successful idea. Before people realized that oily and non-digestible substances would cause "anal leakage", it was sold in the Lays chip. Obviously other ways to avoid fat are needed. Foreman Grill seems to be a solution.

Foreman did his part to improve the ability of the grill, advertising it as a lean, mean, fat-reducing grill-now also named after him. Wisely, Boehm decided to focus on the smallest size first, on the grounds that it would reduce shipping costs. When the $30 grill (the size of two burgers) became popular enough, Boehm expanded their products to other sizes and accessories. Of course, grill users need scrapers, cleaners, and sponges to maintain their equipment.

Foreman is enthusiastic in TV shopping shows, QVC shows and late night TV shows, emphasizing its low-fat effects and fast barbecue time. (The cooking time for most meats is less than 10 minutes.) No wonder he is so determined: In order to support the product, Foreman negotiated an agreement with Salton that would pay 40% to 45% of the athlete's income.

Initially, sales were slow. In 1996, the second year after the grill came out, Salton's income reached US$5 million. But by 1998, due to word of mouth and a series of TV commercials, this number had swelled to 200 million U.S. dollars. Once, after losing the battle with Shannon Briggs, Foreman was meditating in the locker room when he received his latest grill royalty check. This is $1 million. This is also Foreman's last game.

After that, Foreman did not express his frustration that he had lost in a decisive battle. Some sports reporters thought he had actually won, but saw an opportunity to promote his other adventure. "Look, I spent about eight weeks on the George Foreman Lean Mean fat-reducing grill," he said. "I’m grilling in the bedroom. Steak and salmon steak. I can lose a lot of weight. That thing does work. Remember, George Foreman Lean Mean fat-reducing barbecue machine. No home should not have this thing. God bless you. Go get it. one."

After paying approximately US$50 to US$60 million in royalties to Foreman, Salton acquired Foreman and his two business partners in 1999 for a reported US$137.5 million. Barbecue is his favorite. Although he has not officially approved the product for many years, the portrait of Foreman still appears on the box. To date, more than 100 million Foreman grills have been sold.

Because Foreman was so successful on the grill, some people began to believe that it was invented by him. Foreman once joked on Twitter that he thought of it after he dreamed of a piece of talking meat after losing to Ali. For a while, Boehm said that he carried a copy of his patent with him to prove to people that he was the one who created the product.

Foreman was inducted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame in 2002. But George Foreman Grill also has a glorious place-it is in the Smithsonian.