VICTOR: Mr. Foreman, it's so good to have you back once again on Turning Point.
GEORGE: Thank you.
VICTOR: Now, you just published uh your memoirs and we're going to be coming to the book in a few moments, but I have a few questions lined up. The book is titled, "George: Foreman, God in My Corner." Great title.
GEORGE: I think so, that's who you want in your corner in the end.
VICTOR: Well, you can't go wrong with that.
GEORGE: No.
VICTOR: Now, this is a very fascinating read for our viewers out there and I really encourage them to get a copy. But reading it, you know, one of the questions I wanted to ask was, if I had met you 35 years ago, what kind of person would I have run into?
GEORGE: Boy, all I was interested in was knocking someone out. My whole life was dedicated to--
VICTOR: In the ring and outside the ring?
GEORGE: Outside the ring. It was like, if it's happening in the ring, knock them out. When you're not in the ring, think about how you're gonna knock 'em out. That's all my life was about, nothing else.
VICTOR: Life for you was rough.
GEORGE: I think so, you can make life rough. Of course, growing up in deep poverty, without most everything, and then having a chance to get some wealth, you think it's everything. I found out early though, it wasn't. There was more to it than that.
VICTOR: You talk about growing up in poverty, so much so that for you, eight members of your family shared one burger. And you used to think that a burger was food that only the wealthy ate.
GEORGE: I really don't - I never thought that someone could eat a whole one of those things by themselves. Mustard, mmm, I dreamed of it.
VICTOR: Really?
GEORGE: But, you know, my mom would share it with all of us. Everyone would take a little piece of the burger. And for some reason, that taste was something that even stays with me to this day.
VICTOR: And she struggled to take care of yourself and your brothers?
GEORGE: That's right, to try to raise seven kids and herself -- she'd work extra jobs to try to make it. As a matter of fact, if we were going to get some clothes, it was going to be hand-me-downs. Sometimes she'd work for people that'd give us clothes. We learned to go through those sacks and look for… you'd dream that one day there'd be a nice pair of sneakers in there that you could take to school and make you run faster. But never; there would always be mix-match.
VICTOR: I don't mean to ask this question as a as a rhetorical question, I really, mean this. If you had not gone into boxing, where do you think you would have ended up?
GEORGE: Oh, if I hadn't gone into boxing, of course, I would have probably had a long career in prison somewhere. I really would have. But, I found boxing by way of the Job Corps, which really gave me a second chance. I got a chance to get a General Education Diploma, another chance at education, even to enroll in college. I got a second chance -- and then boxing was the vocation, by way of the Job Corps. But if I hadn't found the Job Corps, that was the most important thing. Then, of course, my life would have been a waste.
VICTOR: Now, on the streets you were "Lean, Mean, George Foreman," on the streets.
GEORGE: Yeah.
VICTOR: But your first encounter in the ring didn't end up the way you expected. What happened?
GEORGE: Oh, no. As a matter of fact, the first time I got into the ring, I was gonna knock everybody out because I was a tough street fighter. I didn't know that you have left jabs, and right hooks and all those things. And I tried to pick the guy up and they said, "No, put him down. This is boxing." They laughed me out of the gym. I said I'd never try it again.
VICTOR: And he was much smaller than you were.
GEORGE: Oh, a little skinny guy, he was tall, a light heavyweight; I thought I could just do it because I was George Foreman. Come to find out, there's a lot of skill to boxing. And Doc Broadus told me, you know, I hid from boxing then because all the kids laughed me out of the gym, he said, "What's wrong with you, scared? You didn't come back." I said, "No, I don't have any shoes." He said, "Sit here." He brought me a pair of boxing shoes, he wouldn't let me out.
VICTOR: One of the biggest and most highly anticipated fights of all time in boxing, as far as I'm concerned, was in 1974, Mohammed Ali, George Foreman fight. My father took me to watch it as a child; we watched it via satellite. Didn't see much of the image, but we could hear the sounds. Something went wrong during that fight. You had 40 knockouts at the time; Mohammed Ali probably had 42 career wins. You were ahead of him and everybody expected you to win with a knockout.
GEORGE: That's true.
VICTOR: But it didn't happen that way. What went wrong that night?
GEORGE: Uh, you know what? I've tried to go back and explain a lot of things with that fight. All I know that in hindsight, I lost the boxing match. Mohammed Ali, of course, they said he used the rope-a-dope. I complained after the fight that somebody put something in my water.
VICTOR: Because you did feel funny after your trainer gave you something to drink.
GEORGE: I really did. And so the trainer said, "Nothing's in the water." I said, "This water tastes like medicine." And as a matter of fact, I made a complaint about it later on because we couldn't find it afterwards, when you know, urine in the bottle, we couldn't find those specimens.
And I told them someone put some drugs in, so when they complained and it was on the news, they asked Mohammed Ali about it. "George said he was dopey," he said, "Yep, rope-a-dope." So, that's how the word rope-a-dope came about.
VICTOR: And you also had to deal with the referee's fast count.
GEORGE: Yeah, but you know what? I'm glad that, you know, the fight was over because I could have gotten up and he probably would have killed me.
VICTOR: All right. Now, you said you didn't grow up knowing about Christ and knowing about Jesus, not even reading the Bible, but you had a nephew, also called George who was sick and possibly dying. Now you prayed a very dangerous prayer.
GEORGE: I did.
VICTOR: What happened?
GEORGE: Wow! I know -- I wish -- I couldn't have taken that one back. I heard early in the morning my sister calling and telling my mother, who was in training camp with me, that her son was in a coma and the doctors said he'll probably die, and if he didn't die, he would never use his legs and arms and he'd probably be in a coma for the rest of his life.
And I tried to act like I didn't hear it and I put the phone down and hid, then I told my mother, "Look, you got tell them I'm George Foreman, I've got money to fly in the best doctors." She said, "Son, they've got the best doctors." I said, "You tell them who I am, how much money I have." She said, "Son, you're gonna have to pray." I said, "What?" I actually got upset. "Pray?" That's what I made money for.
And I went to the room and I got on my knees and I prayed three times. I said, "God, take me. Why would you mess with a kid like that? He hasn't had a life." I said, "If you're gonna take someone, take me and let that boy live. He doesn't even know what's going on."
And then I got in the bed and slept after praying I'll give up my money, I'll give up this. It didn't work.
VICTOR: You told God you were gonna give up your money?
GEORGE: I told [God] look, "Take my title, I mean, take my wealth, just let the kid live." And I got back on my knees. That didn't work. Until I said, "Take me, and let that child live," that's when I got some peace. The next day I woke up, got news he was awake. He couldn't move his body, but he was moving his eyes. Then the next day he was moving his toes and arms. A miracle had happened.
Then, of course, I said later on, "Oh, the doctors had it wrong anyway," and I went back to my ways. Little did I know that God would collect on this.
VICTOR: But it was the beginning of a turning point for you.
GEORGE: It was. All of a sudden I knew there was communication somewhere.
