For all of us in life, we have heroes. Some of us revere astronauts or race car drivers, as we dream of being able to stand in their shoes one day. We find heroes in sports, from the quarterback in football to a home run hitter in baseball and we watch their every move, soaking up the graceful way that they excel in the sport that God has given them the chance to play. One sport that has given us many heroes throughout time is boxing, from Muhammad Ali to Rocky Marciano. We have admired their strength and their courage and have always watched to see if the underdog could persevere and come out victorious.

One of those heroes has been George Foreman. His story is one that captivated me and recently I had the privilege of speaking to George about boxing, life, and about Jesus Christ, the One who had changed George’s life in 1977. He is this issue’s Men of God spotlight.

His life

George Foreman burst onto the scene at the age of nineteen as an Olympic gold medalist. Soon thereafter, he would win the heavyweight championship of the world, thus holding the two most coveted titles in the world of boxing.

Q – Can you tell me when you came to know the Lord?

“Well, I have been a preacher now for over thirty years. It was March of 1977 that I had a Grand Experience that changed everything.”

Q – How did you know that God was calling you to be a pastor?

“I tell everybody that you never know what’s happening until it takes over you. In 77, I had an experience where I was dead and alive again in a split second after a boxing match. I was fighting for my life. I went back to my dressing room and I was trying to walk backwards and forwards. Right there in my thoughts, I had just lost a boxing match and I heard, “Well, you have everything. You’ve got your money. You’ve got your ranch. You can go back to your ranch and retire and die.” I’d never heard a message like that in my mind and there I was, fighting for my life in the dressing room. I was so scared and I heard a voice within me say, “You believe in God so why are you scared to die?” I was scared and never before had I been so afraid in my life. I tried to make a deal. I said, “Well, I can still box and give my money to charity.” I heard a voice within me say, “I don’t want your money; I want YOU!” There I was, out of this life in a split second. I had to tell everybody in the room, “I’m dying!” Before I could say that, over my head, under my feet, and all around me was absolutely nothing but darkness and sadness. I saw everything I ever worked for in life crumble like ashes. I got mad. I said, “I still believe there is a God.” When I said that, something like a gigantic hand reached in and pulled me out and I was alive in that dressing room.”
As he spoke about his experience, he spoke with passion, as if he were still there in this moment, still feeling that which he felt in that dressing room in 1977. There was no doubt that this was an act of God, because a man whose life was heading in the wrong direction, immediately began walking with the Lord and preaching the gospel to all that would listen.

His Career

He has traveled the world, become an icon in the ring and in marketing products. George Foreman has lived a life that we can all dream about living and has the depth of faith that many of us have hoped to experience. We talked about boxing and about Christ, two things that I would not have put together until I had the opportunity to talk to George.

Q – What is the life of a major boxer like?

“I was a 19 year old boy and I was boxing in the Olympics. I won an Olympic gold medal and my whole life changed because I had never had a dream come true, coming out of poverty and depression. Then, I became the heavyweight champion of the world and the first thing that I thought was that I could beat any man alive. I was making millions of dollars overnight. I lost the title to Muhammed Ali within a year. Of course, I won the title again at the age of 45, the oldest to ever do so. It was a special moment but the second time around was special because I had God in my corner.”

Q – How could you see God at work in your career in the ring?

“At first, I hated every moment of being a boxer. I didn’t like anything about it. The second time around, after I had found Jesus Christ, it was some of the happiest moments of my life. (After meeting Jesus) there was never a punch in anger. The first time around, that’s all there was, anger. I began teaching kids that you don’t have to have that “killer instinct” and in return, God gave me the gift to go in the ring and be the best that I could and never try to injure anyone.”

Q – Who was the toughest person that you ever fought?

“There were a lot of tough guys. Evander Holyfield was the last tough guy I fought. Muhammad Ali took more punishment and kept coming back. But the only man I was truly afraid of was a man by the name of Smokin’ Joe Frazier.”

Q – What about him scared you?

“Well, I had seen Joe Frazier box and I had seen him beat Muhammad Ali. I had seen him get knocked down in the ring and no matter what you did to him, he kept coming. I had hoped that, by the time it was my turn to fight for the title, he’d no longer be around, but I had to face him. He was the only guy who didn’t have a chink in the armor.”

Q – Boxing is no longer viewed the way that it once was. What is it going to take to bring boxing back to being a major sport?

“Heroes. We need heroes. Boxing has never been a great sport but it was one that always supplied us with a hero. Joe Louis, names like Jack Dempsey, that meant something like strength. We don’t have any heroes and until boxing has a true hero, it’s going to be on the backburner.”

I also asked him what he thought was the one thing that most people didn’t know or understand about boxing. He said that people didn’t understand that it was just a profession, just like any other profession in the world. He said, “It’s just man against man, or woman against woman, and no one really wants to hurt anyone.” He also assured me that getting punched hurts, no matter who you are.

Q – Why Christianity? Why not Islam or Buddhism?

“When I found Jesus Christ, I found all that I had ever been looking for. To be touched by the saving hand of God was the best thing that could happen, not only to me, but also the whole world.”

His New Book

Q – George, can you tell me what your new book is about?

“The new one is Going the Extra Smile. It’s about how I’ve been able to make it over the last thirty years. Even when everything has gone wrong, I just wake up and smile because I have faith in God that things would turn out right.”

Q – Where did the inspiration for this new book come from?

“I see my children going through some of the same things that I’ve gone through and I didn’t just want to put a dollar here or give them a house there. You want to leave your family and friends something, especially your children, and I want to leave them that smile. If everything else is going wrong, they can still smile because they have faith in God.”

Q – What is your hope for the new book?

“I hope everyone gets a chance to see it and read it and understand that no one of us is that much different from the other. If I can have faith in God and things work out for me, then we all can.”

In the course of his lifetime, George has seen it all. He has seen poverty and brokenness and has seen jubilation and triumph. He has had a personal experience with God which has crafted each day of his life since that moment. As we look at his life and read about his thoughts, we can see that this man, always known for his large and radiant smile, has been given a reason to smile from above. We have all been given that reason to smile because much like George, the darkness was overtaking us all until the mighty hand of God rescued us from death.

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