He's a household name, and whether that's because you own one of his Lean Mean Grills, are intrigued with the fact that his 5 sons all have the same first name, because you're a boxing fan, or simply because you love the guys effervescent personality... when you say George Foreman, everyone knows who you're talking about!
George sat down with me to tell me about the moving experience of observing his story - as a bystander - as the movie about his life was being made. Did you know he found his faith and became an evangelical pastor some 40 years ago? That he gave up boxing after a near-death experience, only to return to the ring and reclaim the title of Heavy Weight Champion of the World? It's all in the movie, "Big George Foreman" in theaters on April 28. But you'll want to listen to our conversation first. It's ahhhhmazing! ~ Delilah
Hello, my friend. Welcome to love someone with Delilah. Inspiration. Inspiration. That is what I want this podcast to be for you. Every time we do a podcast, I want to have an uplifting conversation that entertains, enlightens, and inspires. I hope that's how you feel about it, and I'm so glad you are here with me every few weeks. I doubt that I could find a more inspiring guest than the person that is joining me today. He's a household name, he is beloved by millions, and now a movie has been made about his incredible life that's in theaters this week in April twenty eighth. Born in nineteen forty nine in Marshall, Texas, he grew up in pished family and discovered boxing as a passion and an outlet for his anger. He established an impressive amateur record and won a gold medal in the nineteen sixty eight Olympics in Mexico City. By nineteen seventy two, he had a perfect thirty seven zero record, leading him to become the world's heavyweight champion in seventy three, a title he was able to successfully defend twice. YEP, you guessed that you're right. My guest today is none other than the legendary George Foreman. After a fight against Jimmy Young in nineteen seventy seven, George had an experience, an experience that I want to get into with him, that changed his life, a transformation, if you will, leading him to become an ordained minister. He later found the George Foreman Youth and Community Center, a place for kids who need direction like he once did. However, after a few years, the Youth and Community Center was in financial trouble and George returned to the ring to save it. In doing so, he became the oldest fighter ever to win the heavyweight crown. He was forty five. That was in nineteen eighty seven, and George wouldn't retire for another ten years. During his impressive twenty nine year boxing career, he fought against legends including Joe Frazier, Jose Roman, Ken Norton, Mohammad Ali and we're gonna talk about that because I heard they later became dear friends, Evander Holyfield, Michael Moore. Since the early nineteen nineties, he's not only become famous for boxing, but he has sold over one hundred million one hundred million. You can't even fathom that number. George Foreman lean mean grilling machine units, and he's authored ten books today. He is currently a pastor at the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ in Houston, looking forward to the release of his biopic, and has generously agreed to sit down and chat with us. I'm so excited for this conversation. We're going to dive right in as soon as I've shared a word about this episode's first Delicious Uh Comfortable podcast sponsor. Spring is in the air, and there's no better time to spruce up your bedding as well as your bath and your active apparel. Give yourself the gift of comfort and relaxation with Kara Loha. Kara Loha's bamboo viscous products are super soft, cool, allergy resistant, and good for the planet, staying fresher for longer, which is better for you and the environment. Caution before buying. The sheets are so soft you may never want to leave your bed. Do something nice for yourself. Visit Kara Looha dot com c A r I l o h A Kara Looha dot com, where the style of the Caribbean meets the spirit of Aloha. That's Kara Looha dot com. Hello George, welcome to Love Someone with Delilah. Hello, thank you for taking the time to be with us. I know you've got a crazy schedule. I know you must be so excited. Uh so I'm just gonna jump right in here. Tell me about what it felt like making this movie, watching your your life story unfold on the big screen. What was that like.
That's not easy because you go through life, a lot of my life being a celebrity, and you try to hide as much as you can. Get a big house, you put a brick wall around it, you get dog glasses, you ht your face, big limousine with doc on the windows so nobody can see you. You actually hat your life. But it came a time in my life when I wanted to reveal it. And you have to be truthful, and this was the time for it. When I looked at the movie, I was kind of scared too, because hey, I was turning to hide all of this, but now I had to make it true.
So there was a lot in the movie. I was blessed I got to watch it. They sent me a screener. I've known about you. I'm not a huge sports follower or a huge sports fan, and I was young when you were winning gold medals in Mexico Center for the Olympics. But obviously I've seen you. I've owned the Lean Green grilling machine. But the thing that I knew most about you is that you have five boys named George. I mean that when I heard George Foreman, that's what touched me. And you touched on that in the movie a little bit. But you actually have a whole passile a kid. You got what seven daughters, Oh.
No, just five, have five daughters and five sons.
Five daughters, five sons, so that's a full house. How many grand babies?
We have fifteen grandkids and three great grandkids.
Oh, praise God, Praise God, I'm telling you.
And that's the most wonderful part of my life. Being a grandfather. A father was great, but being a grandfather is even better. I mean, it's wonderful.
My show, the radio show that I do every night, that I've been doing as long as you've been boxing, almost is about love and about relationships, and so most of the interviews I have are authors who've written about lover, who touched on love. And there were three love stories that were front and center in your movie that I want to ask you about, and I'm not. I'm going to save the best for last. The love story between you and your mama was so sweet in the movie. Was she really that good, that godly of a woman, George, No.
That lady. My mom really loved me. She really thought I was something special. You get up in the morning, you don't have anything, You go out your door, and you're not important to anyone. But having that mother who really believed in me, cared about me, that was something. And I've never forgotten it. Because I was brought up without a lot of food, without a lot of any mostly without anything. I didn't have hope, and then I found faith later on in my life. But that mother gave me something that I She loved me. I always knew I was loved.
That came across loud and clear in the movie, that she loved you and that she wanted the best for you. She said, you're better than this. You're better than this when you were making bad choices.
So many times she told me that, and I was just like, she doesn't really know me. But I'd heard my mom tell those stories about they'd been brought up on a farm and working, and she and her sisters would get together and tell those stories, and they were so proud because they talk about her father. Papa never raised any thieves, none of his children had gone to jail, and they said over and over. At first it was a joke, and then one day you hear those stories and I was a thief and I was the one going to jail. It embarrassed me so much. One night, while running from the police, I revisited those statements. I realized, for the first time, I had become all those things my mom said her family never had, with thieves and people going to jail, and that's what changed my life. I remember covering my face, would slop under a house so the dogs wouldn't smell me.
Yeah, it was again, it wasn't sloped, that's a good word for it. But I watched the movie. I knew exactly where that sewage was coming from.
I didn't want those dogs to sniff me out. I knew I would go to jail. I covered myself and I don't think the dogs wanted to smell me at that point. But my mom would tell I wanted to make her proud of me. I just wasn't a thief. I just didn't know I was until that night.
And that night you came to that realization. The second love story that stood out to me in watching the movie, and then after I watched it, I stayed up all night doing a deep dive on your life, but the real relationship between you and the character portrayed by Forrest Whittaker, Doc, because that was just beautiful.
I went out for boxing because I was challenged. Everybody told me in the job Corp, you think you're so tough and rough, why don't you become a boxer. And I met Doc Brothers the first time and I said to him, I want to become a boxer only because I wanted to become a better street fighter. I didn't want to really be a boxer. I wanted to learn how to hit the speedbag and skip the ropes, go back to Houston, Texas and beat up everybody. But Doc Brothers the first person who really believed in me. He kept telling me, George, you can be an Olympic champion. If you stop fighting in the streets seeing up your life, you can be heavyweight champ of the world. I didn't want to box, but I didn't want to let him down. He believed in me. And that's the story of George Foreman, someone not giving up on you and believing in you. Far As Whordicer brought that out into movie.
Oh my god, I was crying. I'm a sap, but myself I cried when I saw and the two actors did such a good job. I also did a little research because I was trying to find out who played young George. You know that was Chris Davis, and then who played older George? And I found out that was Chris Davis. He put on how much weight to play?
You? Do you believe that?
I couldnot believe that.
I could not believe it. That was an actor. I wanted someone truly to do the George Foreman's story, but I didn't want anyone trying to imitate my life. This man came out and acted out the George Foreman's story. He did it so much. I was pulling for George Boone. I've forgotten who I was.
It was he, Yeah.
George Poman. To this day, I don't like to take pictures around him because I want people to think that's George.
That's George. Yeah, he is George he was phenomenal, phenomenal. I loved how at the end of the movie they put a clip of the movie with a clip from real life, from the actual fights. They put a clip of you and you know your mama, and then a clip from real life. That brought it all together for me. That was beautiful. I hope everybody goes to see this movie, Big George for mean.
Now.
The third relationship, the love story that I have to ask about is the relationship between you and the Lord Jesus. It showed that you were killed, that you died in the locker room, and that you had a moment where you were gone and when you came back you were born again. What was that? What really happened? What really transformed in your spirit? Like I want to know? I want to know.
Back into the dress room, I lost a twelve round decision. Kind of disappointed about it, but I'd gone twelve rounds to prove I asked Stamina. When I tried to cool off in the dress room, I started thinking, you don't have to worry about that box match. You still, George Forman. I thought about my wealth and you could you know you got the rench. You can go home and retire and die. That had never come into my mind at all. I was about to die, not only die, but in a dirty, smelling dress room when I had all these big homes. And I fought that night to keep my life and I lost the fight, and I looked around in this dog I died and I told everybody in the room, I'm fixing to die. And I looked around. There was nothing over my head, under me, nothing death. And there's a horrible smell that goes along with death. I haven't gotten over that yet, but I got angry at that moment and said, I don't care if this is death. I still believed as a guide. There was no hope for me anyway. But I had a prayer answered once when I was praying for one of my nephews. God, yeah, and I prayed, and that prayer was answered. I didn't believe in religion, but I believed that time in that prayer. That's why I said, I don't care if this is death. I was delivered from this place and giving a second chance to leave. Oh, and then you realize, and I thought I was gone. I told everybody I'm dying, but I'm dying for God. And I laid on that dressing room table and I told my doctor, move your hands because the throngs on his head are making him bleed. I actually saw blood coming down my forehead and I looked at my hand. I told my Mosur, move your hand, he's bleeding. When he crucified him, I started screaming, Jesus Christ is coming alive in me, something I never believed in. I just thought it was something my dear mother had going on. I didn't know what it really was. Ten years I stopped. I didn't box anything, I preached. I became an evangelist for ten years. I didn't even make a fist trying to tell everybody about that story.
And then God said, Okay, you're gonna go back in the ring. You're a little chubby, you're a little overweighting out of shape. But in the movie, your wife said, God showed her in a vision that you were going to win the championship title again, and you believed on that and clung to it.
Yeah, once again, I found that certain person that loved me and believed in me, and she had this vision once. She said, I believe I had a dream, a vision you were going to be heavyweight champion of the world again. I thought she was just trying to make me feel good, but she actually did, and I going back in the box and started fighting all the way to a chance for the title. Lost to the first time, but I almost won. Then got a second chance and really plowed at it because of a vision, and I did become chimp. My wife, she says, she saw it after a while. You believe everything your wife said, you know, and because the most sincere people in your life turn out to be your wife, your mom and your wife.
And she's been by your side now for almost forty years.
That's right, forty years of somebody believing in me. Always there. She when we fight, but she always win. I can't get her. She's the winner.
Everything don't even bother.
You because she cares for me.
She does. We've had such unbelievable lucketting to spend time with our guests today. I have many more questions for George Foreman right after I give another podcast sponsor sometime in the spotlight. If you're going to wear glasses, there's one brand of frames I recommend you have to look for it, but it's worth it. The brand is called Eyes of Faith Optical I discovered this brand and I fell in love with their style of frames. I wear them every day now and get so many compliments. It was only after I discovered the beauty of their frames did I discover the subtle message hidden on the inside of every frame, a scripture from the Bible. Their purpose is not only to provide you with a great frame, but to help others too. Eyes of Faith Optical shares a generous amount of the money they earn to improve the lives and eyesight of so many others, many of them less fortunate than you. And I see their frames and choose the ones that make you feel great when you wear them. Eof optical dot Com is their website. You're going to love what you discover. Eof optical dot com. So do you have any words of inspiration for people who might be struggling today? As anything of inspiration, you could say to somebody who feels like they're in the ring, feels like they're getting beat up by life, feels like they just can't win this round.
And my mother always told me a little story. She said, George, you may you know, God may not be there when you call on him, but he's always right on time, And I used to think, Yeah, that's something that mom talk. If you really learn to pray, all things are possible. Just don't give up on your prayers, have faith in your prayers. Dreams still come true.
Amen. And he is always right on time, not on my time, right on time, right on.
Time's a good. That's good that I said that. Now I realize it all over again.
I think this movie is right on time. I feel like we need hope and we need inspiration. We need to be reminded that a mother's love is the most powerful earthly love, and that a friend like you had in Doc. You know, greater love is there. There is no greater love than this. That a man would lay down his life for a friend.
Boy, you got that right.
I could see in the movie that you would have laid down your life, not just for Doc. But I don't know how true it was the man who lost all your money. But I saw such sweet forgiveness in the movie even for that, And I know you wouldn't have included that unless you had forgiven him.
Oh. I learned forgiveness and everyone should learn forgiveness because without it, you don't have family. There's not a chance you could lose your own mom and dad if you don't learn to forgive and your children. So I learned forgiveness. It was the good best way to hold onto everything I have. Heap forgiving. My mom talked about it, and I learned to live it. Well.
I know your time is sure. But one more quick question. I learned doing a deep dive that you and Muhammad Ali became dear friends as well. Is that true?
Oh? That guy took my title angry with him for a long time, and even four minutes into being hate. But I was delivered from that after I phoned God. He became the most wonderful person in my life. Fell in love with the guy. We did talk on the telephone, and then they had been of FaceTime. We'd actually see each other on the telephone. And he still wanted to win. Of course, how many green kids you got, George, I'd say three, I have four. How many green kids I got five? He said I have six. He always wanted to win, He never wanted to lose, and I learned to love him more than he became one of my best friends ever.
The actor who portrayed him did such a good job with his arrogance and his dancing and his yaba dabba daba daba daba daba dah uh fight like a butterfly.
I was listening to him thinking, shut up man in the movie he made me really relieve those mummas with him.
Sullivan Jones the name of the actor who played mommad Ali man. He must have watched films, because he nailed it. He nailed it.
Nailed it again, irritated me all over again. And Chris Davis for what an.
Actor, What an actor.
I never dreamed that anyone could play that part, but he did it. He made me really, really really of every moment good and bad of my life. What a great actor.
Well, it is a beautiful movie. I don't know how they cramed that much, you know, they crammed the fights, they got the everything, the anger you could just see you were like a raging bull, anger seething out of you. And then the way that you were transformed after you died and God appeared in your spirit, that was just beautiful. It is a beautiful story. And how many years you been I'm preaching now.
Oh forty six years now.
Now, if I was Mohammed, if I was Muhammad, I'd say I've been preaching forty seven.
Amen. He would not let me lose, I mean not let himself lose. What a competitor he had been.
What a fun, fun story. Well, thank you George for taking time with us. Thank you for doing this movie. Thank you for letting the walls down and letting people in because, like I said, I think right now we need inspiration and I think a lot of people will be inspired by your story.
Thank you for having me too, all right, God, bless you, Thank you so much.
The biopic based on the life story of Olympic boxing gold medalist and two time world heavyweight champion George Foreman, is out in theaters nationwide in April on the twenty eighth that stars Chris Davis as George Foreman, an Oscar winner Forrest Whitaker as coach Doc brought us Ah. He was brilliant in the movie. You're gonna love this. I know you'll be inspired by the redemptive true story of pastor George, one of the greatest comebacks of all time as far as sports go, and the transformational power of second chances and faith in God. You can find theaters in Showtimes and get tickets at Biggeorgeforeman, dot movie. Treat yourself. Go to the movies this weekend. Be odd, be entertained, be inspired. Indulg in some popcorn and Junior Man's while you're watching, because afterwards you're gonna want to dig out your George Foreman lean mean grilling machine, hit the gym. Start paying better attention to what you're fueling your body with. Spring is an amazing inspirational season. It's like the quote I've shared several times by Martin Luther that says our Lord has written the promise of resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf of springtime. Inspiration surrounds us, It envelops us, It wraps us up in hope and in love. It is everywhere, even where you might least expect it, Like a movie about boxing. Big George Foreman, the miraculous story of the once and future heavyweight champion of the World. Go see it. Join me on the air nightly and right back here in a few weeks with love someone and do me a favor. Do just that. Take some time to slow down and love someone