Speaker 1: Hello, my friend. Welcome to love someone with Delilah. Inspiration. Inspiration.
Speaker 1: That is what I want this podcast to be for you.
Speaker 1: Every time we do a podcast, I want to have
Speaker 1: an uplifting conversation that entertains, enlightens, and inspires. I hope
Speaker 1: that's how you feel about it, and I'm so glad
Speaker 1: you are here with me every few weeks. I doubt
Speaker 1: that I could find a more inspiring guest than the
Speaker 1: person that is joining me today. He's a household name,
Speaker 1: he is beloved by millions, and now a movie has
Speaker 1: been made about his incredible life that's in theaters this
Speaker 1: week in April twenty eighth. Born in nineteen forty nine
Speaker 1: in Marshall, Texas, he grew up in pished family and
Speaker 1: discovered boxing as a passion and an outlet for his anger.
Speaker 1: He established an impressive amateur record and won a gold
Speaker 1: medal in the nineteen sixty eight Olympics in Mexico City.
Speaker 1: By nineteen seventy two, he had a perfect thirty seven
Speaker 1: zero record, leading him to become the world's heavyweight champion
Speaker 1: in seventy three, a title he was able to successfully
Speaker 1: defend twice. YEP, you guessed that you're right. My guest
Speaker 1: today is none other than the legendary George Foreman. After
Speaker 1: a fight against Jimmy Young in nineteen seventy seven, George
Speaker 1: had an experience, an experience that I want to get
Speaker 1: into with him, that changed his life, a transformation, if
Speaker 1: you will, leading him to become an ordained minister. He
Speaker 1: later found the George Foreman Youth and Community Center, a
Speaker 1: place for kids who need direction like he once did. However,
Speaker 1: after a few years, the Youth and Community Center was
Speaker 1: in financial trouble and George returned to the ring to
Speaker 1: save it. In doing so, he became the oldest fighter
Speaker 1: ever to win the heavyweight crown. He was forty five.
Speaker 1: That was in nineteen eighty seven, and George wouldn't retire
Speaker 1: for another ten years. During his impressive twenty nine year
Speaker 1: boxing career, he fought against legends including Joe Frazier, Jose Roman,
Speaker 1: Ken Norton, Mohammad Ali and we're gonna talk about that
Speaker 1: because I heard they later became dear friends, Evander Holyfield,
Speaker 1: Michael Moore. Since the early nineteen nineties, he's not only
Speaker 1: become famous for boxing, but he has sold over one
Speaker 1: hundred million one hundred million. You can't even fathom that number.
Speaker 1: George Foreman lean mean grilling machine units, and he's authored
Speaker 1: ten books today. He is currently a pastor at the
Speaker 1: Church of the Lord Jesus Christ in Houston, looking forward
Speaker 1: to the release of his biopic, and has generously agreed
Speaker 1: to sit down and chat with us. I'm so excited
Speaker 1: for this conversation. We're going to dive right in as
Speaker 1: soon as I've shared a word about this episode's first
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Speaker 1: Hello George, welcome to Love Someone with Delilah. Hello, thank
Speaker 1: you for taking the time to be with us. I
Speaker 1: know you've got a crazy schedule. I know you must
Speaker 1: be so excited. Uh so I'm just gonna jump right
Speaker 1: in here. Tell me about what it felt like making
Speaker 1: this movie, watching your your life story unfold on the
Speaker 1: big screen. What was that like.
Speaker 2: That's not easy because you go through life, a lot
Speaker 2: of my life being a celebrity, and you try to
Speaker 2: hide as much as you can. Get a big house,
Speaker 2: you put a brick wall around it, you get dog glasses,
Speaker 2: you ht your face, big limousine with doc on the
Speaker 2: windows so nobody can see you. You actually hat your life.
Speaker 2: But it came a time in my life when I
Speaker 2: wanted to reveal it. And you have to be truthful,
Speaker 2: and this was the time for it. When I looked
Speaker 2: at the movie, I was kind of scared too, because hey,
Speaker 2: I was turning to hide all of this, but now
Speaker 2: I had to make it true.
Speaker 1: So there was a lot in the movie. I was
Speaker 1: blessed I got to watch it. They sent me a screener.
Speaker 1: I've known about you. I'm not a huge sports follower
Speaker 1: or a huge sports fan, and I was young when
Speaker 1: you were winning gold medals in Mexico Center for the Olympics.
Speaker 1: But obviously I've seen you. I've owned the Lean Green
Speaker 1: grilling machine. But the thing that I knew most about
Speaker 1: you is that you have five boys named George. I
Speaker 1: mean that when I heard George Foreman, that's what touched me.
Speaker 1: And you touched on that in the movie a little bit.
Speaker 1: But you actually have a whole passile a kid. You
Speaker 1: got what seven daughters, Oh.
Speaker 2: No, just five, have five daughters and five sons.
Speaker 1: Five daughters, five sons, so that's a full house. How
Speaker 1: many grand babies?
Speaker 2: We have fifteen grandkids and three great grandkids.
Speaker 1: Oh, praise God, Praise God, I'm telling you.
Speaker 2: And that's the most wonderful part of my life. Being
Speaker 2: a grandfather. A father was great, but being a grandfather
Speaker 2: is even better. I mean, it's wonderful.
Speaker 1: My show, the radio show that I do every night,
Speaker 1: that I've been doing as long as you've been boxing,
Speaker 1: almost is about love and about relationships, and so most
Speaker 1: of the interviews I have are authors who've written about lover,
Speaker 1: who touched on love. And there were three love stories
Speaker 1: that were front and center in your movie that I
Speaker 1: want to ask you about, and I'm not. I'm going
Speaker 1: to save the best for last. The love story between
Speaker 1: you and your mama was so sweet in the movie.
Speaker 1: Was she really that good, that godly of a woman, George, No.
Speaker 2: That lady. My mom really loved me. She really thought
Speaker 2: I was something special. You get up in the morning,
Speaker 2: you don't have anything, You go out your door, and
Speaker 2: you're not important to anyone. But having that mother who
Speaker 2: really believed in me, cared about me, that was something.
Speaker 2: And I've never forgotten it. Because I was brought up
Speaker 2: without a lot of food, without a lot of any
Speaker 2: mostly without anything. I didn't have hope, and then I
Speaker 2: found faith later on in my life. But that mother
Speaker 2: gave me something that I She loved me. I always
Speaker 2: knew I was loved.
Speaker 1: That came across loud and clear in the movie, that
Speaker 1: she loved you and that she wanted the best for you.
Speaker 1: She said, you're better than this. You're better than this
Speaker 1: when you were making bad choices.
Speaker 2: So many times she told me that, and I was
Speaker 2: just like, she doesn't really know me. But I'd heard
Speaker 2: my mom tell those stories about they'd been brought up
Speaker 2: on a farm and working, and she and her sisters
Speaker 2: would get together and tell those stories, and they were
Speaker 2: so proud because they talk about her father. Papa never
Speaker 2: raised any thieves, none of his children had gone to jail,
Speaker 2: and they said over and over. At first it was
Speaker 2: a joke, and then one day you hear those stories
Speaker 2: and I was a thief and I was the one
Speaker 2: going to jail. It embarrassed me so much. One night,
Speaker 2: while running from the police, I revisited those statements. I realized,
Speaker 2: for the first time, I had become all those things
Speaker 2: my mom said her family never had, with thieves and
Speaker 2: people going to jail, and that's what changed my life.
Speaker 2: I remember covering my face, would slop under a house
Speaker 2: so the dogs wouldn't smell me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was again, it wasn't sloped, that's a good
Speaker 1: word for it. But I watched the movie. I knew
Speaker 1: exactly where that sewage was coming from.
Speaker 2: I didn't want those dogs to sniff me out. I
Speaker 2: knew I would go to jail. I covered myself and
Speaker 2: I don't think the dogs wanted to smell me at
Speaker 2: that point. But my mom would tell I wanted to
Speaker 2: make her proud of me. I just wasn't a thief.
Speaker 2: I just didn't know I was until that night.
Speaker 1: And that night you came to that realization. The second
Speaker 1: love story that stood out to me in watching the movie,
Speaker 1: and then after I watched it, I stayed up all
Speaker 1: night doing a deep dive on your life, but the
Speaker 1: real relationship between you and the character portrayed by Forrest Whittaker, Doc,
Speaker 1: because that was just beautiful.
Speaker 2: I went out for boxing because I was challenged. Everybody
Speaker 2: told me in the job Corp, you think you're so
Speaker 2: tough and rough, why don't you become a boxer. And
Speaker 2: I met Doc Brothers the first time and I said
Speaker 2: to him, I want to become a boxer only because
Speaker 2: I wanted to become a better street fighter. I didn't
Speaker 2: want to really be a boxer. I wanted to learn
Speaker 2: how to hit the speedbag and skip the ropes, go
Speaker 2: back to Houston, Texas and beat up everybody. But Doc
Speaker 2: Brothers the first person who really believed in me. He
Speaker 2: kept telling me, George, you can be an Olympic champion.
Speaker 2: If you stop fighting in the streets seeing up your life,
Speaker 2: you can be heavyweight champ of the world. I didn't
Speaker 2: want to box, but I didn't want to let him down.
Speaker 2: He believed in me. And that's the story of George Foreman,
Speaker 2: someone not giving up on you and believing in you.
Speaker 2: Far As Whordicer brought that out into movie.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I was crying. I'm a sap, but
Speaker 1: myself I cried when I saw and the two actors
Speaker 1: did such a good job. I also did a little
Speaker 1: research because I was trying to find out who played
Speaker 1: young George. You know that was Chris Davis, and then
Speaker 1: who played older George? And I found out that was
Speaker 1: Chris Davis. He put on how much weight to play?
Speaker 2: You? Do you believe that?
Speaker 1: I couldnot believe that.
Speaker 2: I could not believe it. That was an actor. I
Speaker 2: wanted someone truly to do the George Foreman's story, but
Speaker 2: I didn't want anyone trying to imitate my life. This
Speaker 2: man came out and acted out the George Foreman's story.
Speaker 2: He did it so much. I was pulling for George Boone.
Speaker 2: I've forgotten who I was.
Speaker 1: It was he, Yeah.
Speaker 2: George Poman. To this day, I don't like to take
Speaker 2: pictures around him because I want people to think that's George.
Speaker 1: That's George. Yeah, he is George he was phenomenal, phenomenal.
Speaker 1: I loved how at the end of the movie they
Speaker 1: put a clip of the movie with a clip from
Speaker 1: real life, from the actual fights. They put a clip
Speaker 1: of you and you know your mama, and then a
Speaker 1: clip from real life. That brought it all together for me.
Speaker 1: That was beautiful. I hope everybody goes to see this movie,
Speaker 1: Big George for mean.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: The third relationship, the love story that I have to
Speaker 1: ask about is the relationship between you and the Lord Jesus.
Speaker 1: It showed that you were killed, that you died in
Speaker 1: the locker room, and that you had a moment where
Speaker 1: you were gone and when you came back you were
Speaker 1: born again. What was that? What really happened? What really
Speaker 1: transformed in your spirit? Like I want to know? I
Speaker 1: want to know.
Speaker 2: Back into the dress room, I lost a twelve round decision.
Speaker 2: Kind of disappointed about it, but I'd gone twelve rounds
Speaker 2: to prove I asked Stamina. When I tried to cool
Speaker 2: off in the dress room, I started thinking, you don't
Speaker 2: have to worry about that box match. You still, George Forman.
Speaker 2: I thought about my wealth and you could you know
Speaker 2: you got the rench. You can go home and retire
Speaker 2: and die. That had never come into my mind at all.
Speaker 2: I was about to die, not only die, but in
Speaker 2: a dirty, smelling dress room when I had all these
Speaker 2: big homes. And I fought that night to keep my
Speaker 2: life and I lost the fight, and I looked around
Speaker 2: in this dog I died and I told everybody in
Speaker 2: the room, I'm fixing to die. And I looked around.
Speaker 2: There was nothing over my head, under me, nothing death.
Speaker 2: And there's a horrible smell that goes along with death.
Speaker 2: I haven't gotten over that yet, but I got angry
Speaker 2: at that moment and said, I don't care if this
Speaker 2: is death. I still believed as a guide. There was
Speaker 2: no hope for me anyway. But I had a prayer
Speaker 2: answered once when I was praying for one of my nephews. God, yeah,
Speaker 2: and I prayed, and that prayer was answered. I didn't
Speaker 2: believe in religion, but I believed that time in that prayer.
Speaker 2: That's why I said, I don't care if this is death.
Speaker 2: I was delivered from this place and giving a second
Speaker 2: chance to leave. Oh, and then you realize, and I
Speaker 2: thought I was gone. I told everybody I'm dying, but
Speaker 2: I'm dying for God. And I laid on that dressing
Speaker 2: room table and I told my doctor, move your hands
Speaker 2: because the throngs on his head are making him bleed.
Speaker 2: I actually saw blood coming down my forehead and I
Speaker 2: looked at my hand. I told my Mosur, move your hand,
Speaker 2: he's bleeding. When he crucified him, I started screaming, Jesus
Speaker 2: Christ is coming alive in me, something I never believed in.
Speaker 2: I just thought it was something my dear mother had
Speaker 2: going on. I didn't know what it really was. Ten
Speaker 2: years I stopped. I didn't box anything, I preached. I
Speaker 2: became an evangelist for ten years. I didn't even make
Speaker 2: a fist trying to tell everybody about that story.
Speaker 1: And then God said, Okay, you're gonna go back in
Speaker 1: the ring. You're a little chubby, you're a little overweighting
Speaker 1: out of shape. But in the movie, your wife said,
Speaker 1: God showed her in a vision that you were going
Speaker 1: to win the championship title again, and you believed on
Speaker 1: that and clung to it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, once again, I found that certain person that loved
Speaker 2: me and believed in me, and she had this vision once.
Speaker 2: She said, I believe I had a dream, a vision
Speaker 2: you were going to be heavyweight champion of the world again.
Speaker 2: I thought she was just trying to make me feel good,
Speaker 2: but she actually did, and I going back in the
Speaker 2: box and started fighting all the way to a chance
Speaker 2: for the title. Lost to the first time, but I
Speaker 2: almost won. Then got a second chance and really plowed
Speaker 2: at it because of a vision, and I did become chimp.
Speaker 2: My wife, she says, she saw it after a while.
Speaker 2: You believe everything your wife said, you know, and because
Speaker 2: the most sincere people in your life turn out to
Speaker 2: be your wife, your mom and your wife.
Speaker 1: And she's been by your side now for almost forty years.
Speaker 2: That's right, forty years of somebody believing in me. Always there.
Speaker 2: She when we fight, but she always win. I can't
Speaker 2: get her. She's the winner.
Speaker 1: Everything don't even bother.
Speaker 2: You because she cares for me.
Speaker 1: She does. We've had such unbelievable lucketting to spend time
Speaker 1: with our guests today. I have many more questions for
Speaker 1: George Foreman right after I give another podcast sponsor sometime
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Speaker 1: So do you have any words of inspiration for people
Speaker 1: who might be struggling today? As anything of inspiration, you
Speaker 1: could say to somebody who feels like they're in the ring,
Speaker 1: feels like they're getting beat up by life, feels like
Speaker 1: they just can't win this round.
Speaker 2: And my mother always told me a little story. She said, George,
Speaker 2: you may you know, God may not be there when
Speaker 2: you call on him, but he's always right on time,
Speaker 2: And I used to think, Yeah, that's something that mom talk.
Speaker 2: If you really learn to pray, all things are possible.
Speaker 2: Just don't give up on your prayers, have faith in
Speaker 2: your prayers. Dreams still come true.
Speaker 1: Amen. And he is always right on time, not on
Speaker 1: my time, right on time, right on.
Speaker 2: Time's a good. That's good that I said that. Now
Speaker 2: I realize it all over again.
Speaker 1: I think this movie is right on time. I feel
Speaker 1: like we need hope and we need inspiration. We need
Speaker 1: to be reminded that a mother's love is the most
Speaker 1: powerful earthly love, and that a friend like you had
Speaker 1: in Doc. You know, greater love is there. There is
Speaker 1: no greater love than this. That a man would lay
Speaker 1: down his life for a friend.
Speaker 2: Boy, you got that right.
Speaker 1: I could see in the movie that you would have
Speaker 1: laid down your life, not just for Doc. But I
Speaker 1: don't know how true it was the man who lost
Speaker 1: all your money. But I saw such sweet forgiveness in
Speaker 1: the movie even for that, And I know you wouldn't
Speaker 1: have included that unless you had forgiven him.
Speaker 2: Oh. I learned forgiveness and everyone should learn forgiveness because
Speaker 2: without it, you don't have family. There's not a chance
Speaker 2: you could lose your own mom and dad if you
Speaker 2: don't learn to forgive and your children. So I learned forgiveness.
Speaker 2: It was the good best way to hold onto everything
Speaker 2: I have. Heap forgiving. My mom talked about it, and
Speaker 2: I learned to live it. Well.
Speaker 1: I know your time is sure. But one more quick question.
Speaker 1: I learned doing a deep dive that you and Muhammad
Speaker 1: Ali became dear friends as well. Is that true?
Speaker 2: Oh? That guy took my title angry with him for
Speaker 2: a long time, and even four minutes into being hate.
Speaker 2: But I was delivered from that after I phoned God.
Speaker 2: He became the most wonderful person in my life. Fell
Speaker 2: in love with the guy. We did talk on the telephone,
Speaker 2: and then they had been of FaceTime. We'd actually see
Speaker 2: each other on the telephone. And he still wanted to win.
Speaker 2: Of course, how many green kids you got, George, I'd
Speaker 2: say three, I have four. How many green kids I
Speaker 2: got five? He said I have six. He always wanted
Speaker 2: to win, He never wanted to lose, and I learned
Speaker 2: to love him more than he became one of my
Speaker 2: best friends ever.
Speaker 1: The actor who portrayed him did such a good job
Speaker 1: with his arrogance and his dancing and his yaba dabba
Speaker 1: daba daba daba daba dah uh fight like a butterfly.
Speaker 2: I was listening to him thinking, shut up man in
Speaker 2: the movie he made me really relieve those mummas with him.
Speaker 1: Sullivan Jones the name of the actor who played mommad
Speaker 1: Ali man. He must have watched films, because he nailed it.
Speaker 1: He nailed it.
Speaker 2: Nailed it again, irritated me all over again. And Chris
Speaker 2: Davis for what an.
Speaker 1: Actor, What an actor.
Speaker 2: I never dreamed that anyone could play that part, but
Speaker 2: he did it. He made me really, really really of
Speaker 2: every moment good and bad of my life. What a
Speaker 2: great actor.
Speaker 1: Well, it is a beautiful movie. I don't know how
Speaker 1: they cramed that much, you know, they crammed the fights,
Speaker 1: they got the everything, the anger you could just see
Speaker 1: you were like a raging bull, anger seething out of you.
Speaker 1: And then the way that you were transformed after you
Speaker 1: died and God appeared in your spirit, that was just beautiful.
Speaker 1: It is a beautiful story. And how many years you
Speaker 1: been I'm preaching now.
Speaker 2: Oh forty six years now.
Speaker 1: Now, if I was Mohammed, if I was Muhammad, I'd
Speaker 1: say I've been preaching forty seven.
Speaker 2: Amen. He would not let me lose, I mean not
Speaker 2: let himself lose. What a competitor he had been.
Speaker 1: What a fun, fun story. Well, thank you George for
Speaker 1: taking time with us. Thank you for doing this movie.
Speaker 1: Thank you for letting the walls down and letting people
Speaker 1: in because, like I said, I think right now we
Speaker 1: need inspiration and I think a lot of people will
Speaker 1: be inspired by your story.
Speaker 2: Thank you for having me too, all right, God, bless you,
Speaker 2: Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: The biopic based on the life story of Olympic boxing
Speaker 1: gold medalist and two time world heavyweight champion George Foreman,
Speaker 1: is out in theaters nationwide in April on the twenty
Speaker 1: eighth that stars Chris Davis as George Foreman, an Oscar
Speaker 1: winner Forrest Whitaker as coach Doc brought us Ah. He
Speaker 1: was brilliant in the movie. You're gonna love this. I
Speaker 1: know you'll be inspired by the redemptive true story of
Speaker 1: pastor George, one of the greatest comebacks of all time
Speaker 1: as far as sports go, and the transformational power of
Speaker 1: second chances and faith in God. You can find theaters
Speaker 1: in Showtimes and get tickets at Biggeorgeforeman, dot movie. Treat yourself.
Speaker 1: Go to the movies this weekend. Be odd, be entertained,
Speaker 1: be inspired. Indulg in some popcorn and Junior Man's while
Speaker 1: you're watching, because afterwards you're gonna want to dig out
Speaker 1: your George Foreman lean mean grilling machine, hit the gym.
Speaker 1: Start paying better attention to what you're fueling your body with.
Speaker 1: Spring is an amazing inspirational season. It's like the quote
Speaker 1: I've shared several times by Martin Luther that says our
Speaker 1: Lord has written the promise of resurrection, not in books alone,
Speaker 1: but in every leaf of springtime. Inspiration surrounds us, It
Speaker 1: envelops us, It wraps us up in hope and in love.
Speaker 1: It is everywhere, even where you might least expect it,
Speaker 1: Like a movie about boxing. Big George Foreman, the miraculous
Speaker 1: story of the once and future heavyweight champion of the World.
Speaker 1: Go see it. Join me on the air nightly and
Speaker 1: right back here in a few weeks with love someone
Speaker 1: and do me a favor. Do just that. Take some
Speaker 1: time to slow down and love someone