The troubled youth and surprising legacy of George Foreman

George Foreman, the two-time heavyweight boxing champion of the world, died Friday night at the age of seventy-six. If this was all you knew about him, you didn’t know what mattered most to him.

Note the priorities of his life as described by his family at his death:

A devout preacher, a devoted husband, a loving father and a proud grand- and great-grandfather, he lived a life marked by unwavering faith, humility, and purpose. A humanitarian, an Olympian and two-time heavyweight champion of the world, he was deeply respected.

However, few would have imagined such a life and legacy when he was growing up in my hometown of Houston.

“I don’t want your money, I want you”

By his own admission, Foreman was a troubled youth. He dropped out of school at the age of fifteen and spent time as a mugger. The next year, he had a change of heart and convinced his mother to sign him up for Job Corps after seeing an ad for the Corps on television. He earned his GED and tried to become a carpenter and bricklayer before finding boxing.

Foreman won a gold medal at the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games and said later this was the achievement of which he was most proud in his boxing career. He went on to defeat Joe Frazier to become the world heavyweight boxing champion.

I was one of millions who watched his shocking loss to Muhammad Ali on television the next year. Most people thought he would win easily, but the aging Ali’s now-famous “rope-a-dope” strategy depleted Foreman’s formidable power and led to his defeat. Many assumed his boxing career was effectively over.

After a few more fights, Foreman lost a bout in Puerto Rico. Suffering from exhaustion and heatstroke, he stated later that he had a near-death experience. 

He spoke of being in a terrifying place of nothingness and despair and pled with God to help him. He said he heard a voice in his dressing room that asked, “Do you believe in God? Why are you ready to die?”

He responded, “Look, I am George Foreman. I can give money to charity and for cancer.” But the voice answered, “I don’t want your money; I want you.” In that moment, Foreman gave his life to Christ and said, “I never was the same man. My life changed.”

Foreman left boxing to become a minister. He went to prisons and hospitals to tell his story, then started a youth center. 

Ten years later, in need of money for his ministry, he returned to boxing. Seven years later, he shocked the boxing world by knocking out Michael Moorer, nineteen years his junior, and regaining his world title. Foreman’s twenty years between titles is easily the longest gap in boxing history.

“George Foreman put God first”

Foreman started a church in Houston he led for three decades. He made millions from the George Foreman Grill, but said he was especially proud of the way it helped people lose weight and improve their health: “Success cannot be measured with money when you’re talking about this.”

He starred briefly in a sitcom called “George” in the 1990s and even appeared on the reality singing competition The Masked Singer in 2022. A biographical movie based on his life was released the next year.

He was especially grateful for his wife Mary. “When I speak, they ask me what I consider my most crowning achievement,” he said. “I raise up my left hand and show them my wedding band.”

When a reporter asked him what aspect of his life he hoped would stand out most, he replied:

Most importantly, that someone will read somewhere that George Foreman put God first. I had that experience in Puerto Rico all those years back and it is just as real and fresh as if it happened to me yesterday. People know if you sit down long enough with me, “Oh, he’s going to start talking religion.” And that’s what I really want people to know about me, that I was a church member, and I give my life to Jesus Christ.

“The world is full of people who want to play it safe”

When I “start talking religion,” secular people can easily dismiss my words as coming from a “paid Christian” who is simply doing his job. When you start sharing your faith, however, they have no such recourse. If you use your cultural influence for Christ, others “see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).

George Foreman touched millions of people who will never know my name. But I have the privilege of knowing people who don’t know his.

So do you.

The Holy Spirit is at work today preparing the heart of someone he intends you to influence tomorrow. The key, in the words of my wise mentor, is to stay obedient to the last word we heard from God and open to the next. We cannot measure the eternal significance of present faithfulness.

When George Foreman met Jesus in a dressing room in Puerto Rico, he could not know I would be writing about his experience decades later or that you would be reading my words. You cannot know how God will use your obedience tomorrow to touch souls for decades to come (if the Lord tarries).

Here’s the key: If we have a genuine, daily relationship with the living Lord Jesus, we cannot be the same. Nor can the lives we touch.

Our secularized culture sees Jesus as a figure of the past akin to Buddha, Muhammad, and Confucius. But Foreman experienced Jesus as a living, present-tense reality. His life was transformed not by religion but by a personal experience with our transforming Lord. He spent the rest of his life encouraging others to meet the One who changed his life.

Now you and I are invited to follow his example.

In his book Knockout Entrepreneur, George Foreman wrote:

The world is full of people who want to play it safe, people who have tremendous potential but never use it. Somewhere deep inside them, they know that they could do more in life, be more, and have more—if only they were willing to take a few risks.

What risks will you take for Jesus today?