America lost two giants who appeared on different stages, and did not always win, but were examples for all of us to emulate.

They both represented America admirably. One was a Gold Medal recipient in the Olympic Games before becoming a professional champion. The other made a mark in the halls of Congress representing the great state of Utah. They loved our country. Mia Love and George Foreman will be missed.

Both had two careers. In the case of Foreman, his last career dwarfed his first one, which made him known to the world.

Foreman, a two-time heavyweight boxing champion, turned to the ministry and then to business, developing a multi-million dollar enterprise – we all know his trademark George Foreman Grille.

Love, following a career in politics which included being the first Black Republican woman elected to Congress, embarked upon a very promising career as a political commentator for CNN.

Both were fighters. Foreman was best known for his famous “rope-a-dope” fight against the legendary Muhammad Ali. That was when Foreman, the once invincible fighter, was fooled by Ali. Foreman exhausted himself by punching harder and harder in the early rounds, but Ali, who played possum at first, awoke after a few rounds and went on to hand Foremen his first defeat. That defeat clung to Foreman for years.

But with God’s help, Foreman fought back in other ways and went on to accumulate more wealth than any of his contemporaries in boxing.

In 2022 Love received a medical diagnosis that would have made a weaker person give in. But here too, with the help of God and the love of family, she fought to extend her life far beyond what the medical professionals had originally predicted.

I knew Love. I did not know Foreman. Mia and I shared many common bonds.

Not only was Love the first Republican Black female elected to Congress, she was also the first to demonstrate that a Black woman could get elected in an overwhelmingly white congressional district.

In 1990, 24 years prior to Love’s election to Congress, I was elected to Congress as a Black Republican, also from an overwhelmingly white congressional district (4% Black). Age wise, we were both elected in our 30s.

Before she moved to Utah, we both shared Connecticut as our home. She graduated from high school in Connecticut and attended the University of Hartford. During that time, I was serving in Congress as the first Black conservative in Congress and first Black Republican to serve in the House of Representatives in nearly 60 years.

I could relate to her quest for office and for the challenges she had to face as a Black conservative politician.

We knew that sometimes you had to deal with overt racism in politics, even from those within your own party.

We both got elected to Congress after suffering a prior defeat for office.

We now have had many Black people who have and are serving in the Senate as well.

At just 49, Mia was much too young to leave us, but her life will serve as an example for others for decades to come.

Rest in peace, two of America’s best fighters – Congresswoman Love and the Boxing Champion Foreman.