VICTOR: Not long after this you met Jimmy Young, you had an amazing encounter with God after that fight. For those who are not familiar with that story, what happened?
GEORGE: Oh, it was a fight, I was number one contender, this was an elimination fight. Mohammed Ali wouldn't give me a title shot, they were gonna make this an elimination bout, I would be champion. So I was gonna go 12 rounds and show the world that I was tough and strong. I even let Jimmy Young off the hook a few times, just so I could show the world I had stamina.
I went back to the dressing room after losing that fight on a decision. I wasn't hurt. And there I was walking, cooling down, trying to just cool off, and just in the midst of my thoughts, I said, "You're still George Foreman. You don't have to worry about that boxing match."
I'm thinking that I'm thinking, "You can go home now and retire and die." I said, "Die? How did that get in there?" I was fighting death in that conversation, trying to fight for my life, and right in the midst of that I heard a voice say, "You believe in God?"
And I always told people about God, I just didn't believe in religion. That was for poor people without money, you know- the birds in the trees. So I tried to make a deal. I said, "Yeah, I'm still George Foreman, I can box and give money to charity and for cancer." The voice said, "I don't want your money, I want you."
And I realized --
VICTOR: You heard this voice?
GEORGE: -- I heard that right from within me and I knew it wasn't anybody I knew, turning down money. And so, they didn't take the deal. And I got scared. I was trying to hide it from people in the dressing room. And I felt my legs giving out and I said, "Y'all I'm fixing…" before I could say "die", I was in this dark place over my head, under my feet was nothing. I was dead, there wasn't any more of me.
I said -- it was like a dump yard. And there wasn't any hope, like someone had dropped you in the sea, not a boat around. I got mad, I said, "I don't care if this is death." I believed there's a God, I just didn't believe in religion. When I said that, I was rescued, like a big hand pulled me out of this dump yard, and I was alive in that dressing room, blood flowing through my veins.
I told my doctor, I said, "Doctor, 'evidently he had picked me up off the floor.' Move your hands, because the thorns on his head are making him bleed."
They looked at me smiling, but I saw blood. I told my masseur, "Move your hand, he's bleeding where they crucified him." I said, "Jesus Christ is coming alive in me."
I haven't stop saying it since.
VICTOR: Amen. So that was the beginning of the change in your life?
GEORGE: It changed my life. And I started screaming and they strapped me down and took me into intensive care in the hospital because I was screaming that Jesus Christ was coming alive in me. I didn't believe in Jesus, I just didn't think he existed. I just thought it was just something that people celebrated every year.
For poor people, when, you know, you get beat up, you don't have any money, you say "Jesus." I didn't know that He was real. I didn't. It changed me.
For 10 years I couldn't even make a fist. I stopped boxing. I even hid for a couple of years. I didn't want people to know that I was in something that I had made fun of all those years. I talked about it, made jokes of those people. The guy with a Bible, I said, "I'm gonna knock him out." I really felt like that.
But my life did change forever. And for 10 years I didn't box or anything. I left boxing.
VICTOR: You actually left boxing and became a pastor.
GEORGE: Yeah, full time evangelist and even a pastor at the Church of the Lord Jesus, where I still do. I'm still a preacher now.
VICTOR: Every week?
GEORGE: Every week. Saturdays and Wednesdays and Sundays, I'm in church trying to convert and help God.
VICTOR: Let's talk about your book, "George Foreman, God in My Corner, A Spiritual Memoir." Why now? And what's the theme?
GEORGE: Well, some people understand that "George Foreman, you're so successful. You got the George Foreman Grill." And we've sold over 100 million of those grills. I became the oldest ever to be Heavyweight Champ of the World again. And people would walk up, "George, you're one bad blankety-blank. And by the way, where are you going?" I said, "To church." "For what?" I said, "I'm a preacher." They didn't know. And this was to spell out, not only what I've done with my life, but how it came about. It was God in my corner all along.
VICTOR: Do you, when you look back, do you really feel that everything you dealt with was a setup for what God was going to use you to do down the road?
GEORGE: And you know, I'm a boxer because sometimes you'd throw the jab out there a little bit and then you'd tap the guy a little bit, and you'd do all kind of tricks to set him up for the knockout. I realized that God had been setting me up all those times for that big punch. In 1977, the knockout blow was delivered and I've been here since. I realize that my whole life has been on, sort of, God has been keeping me on the journey all along for that purpose.
VICTOR: My son is in the studio, he is 12 years old, an aspiring TV presenter, just like his father, and he's been reading your book and he's got a question for you. Alexander says, "In your book you say 'losing may actually be winning, but you won't be able to see it until you look back and connect the dots.'" He says, "What do you mean by this?"
GEORGE: That's strange because I was the toughest, most feared boxer in the world. And I thought Mohammed Ali was impossible for me to lose, but there I was on the canvas being counted out. I couldn't understand that. If I had won that boxing match, I never would have been able to be humble enough to find Jesus Christ.
Of course, people walked up to me, "George, you'll win it again." They didn't know that was a prophecy. Twenty years later, I became the Heavyweight Champ of the World, but most importantly, I understood why, I had God in my corner then.
I'm so glad I didn't win that boxing match. There's no telling where my life would have gone.
VICTOR: Mr. George Foreman, it's always a joy and a wonderful pleasure having you on Turning Point. The name of the book again is "George Foremen, God in My Corner, A Spiritual Memoir." We encourage our viewers out there to go grab a copy, you'll truly be blessed by it. Our guest today again has been the World Heavyweight Champion, Mr. George Foreman, twice Heavyweight Champion, entrepreneur, author and ambassador of the Lord Jesus Christ. Check him out. Go online, go to your bookstore and get a copy of the book.
