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Two-time world heavyweight boxing champion George Foreman tells the story of his encounter with his most formidable opponent—the living God.

 

Long before he ever sold his famous grills, George Foreman had a unique place in American history. Foreman grew up troubled and poor in Houston, but the ninth grade dropout learned to box, eventually winning the gold medal at the 1968 Olympic games in Mexico City.

 

Then he turned pro, and in 1973, he knocked down heavyweight champ. Joe Frazier, to win the crown. A year later, he lost his title to Muhammad Ali in the famous “Rumble in the Jungle” in Kinshasa, Zaire.

 

In 1977, in a comeback bout against Jimmy Young dubbed the “Fight of the Year” by Ring Magazine, Foreman fought before a sold-out arena and a worldwide television audience. Boxing promoter Don King, known for his wild hairstyle and outrageous personality, told Foreman, who was favored to win the match, “Just don’t knock him out too early!” in an effort to prolong the fight and drive up television ratings.

 

Unfortunately, Foreman’s mercy toward Young backfired, giving his challenger the confidence he needed to survive through the sixth round. By the seventh round, Foreman was ready to end the fight, striking Young with a punch that caused his knees to buckle. But Foreman backed off again.

 

By the final round, he was ahead in points, but Foreman still went after a knockout punch that would guarantee him the victory. Foreman chased him around the ring, finally throwing a wild punch, but Young caught Foreman off-balance and knocked him to the canvas. Foreman immediately jumped to his feet, but that knockdown sealed the victory for Young.

 

Even after the final bell rang, Foreman was confident of a win. He stood in stunned silence when the announcer raised Young’s hand and declared him the winner. But his greatest shock was yet to come.

 

After his loss, Foreman went to his dressing room to “cool down,” joined by his trainers, physician and brothers.

 

The room’s air conditioning had gone out that night, and the room was hot and stuffy. Sweat poured from Foreman’s body as he paced the room, replaying the fight in his mind.

 

“At that point I was trying to rationalize everything,” Foreman explained. “I knew I had lost the fight, but I also knew that even though I lost, there were lots of other things I could do. I had the independence and the money to do anything I wanted.”

 

All of the sudden, Foreman was overwhelmed with voices and the thought of death. He looked around the room trying to determine the source of the chilling voices.

 

“I kept saying ‘I don’t want to die,’” he recalled of that moment. “I’ve got too much to live for, but even then I was fooling myself, because what I was really scared of was dying without saying goodbye to my mother.”

 

Instead, he felt his legs buckle, lurch forward, and his mind lapsed into darkness.

    

“I believe that at that point I was physically dead,” Foreman recalled. “But real death would probably have been a good option to what I experienced next. At that moment I was in a deep, dark void. It was like a bottomless pit.

 

I believe that I was literally nowhere, just getting a look at what an eternity without God would be like. It was a dark place where sorrow engulfed my soul. I couldn’t see anyone, but I knew other people were there. And I was overwhelmed with the smell of death. I will never forget that putrid smell. Even there I thought about all that I had and everything I had accomplished in my life, but I also wondered what good all those things are when I was dead. Where I was there was no hope, but I still believed in God.”

 

In an instant, what seemed like a gigantic hand plucked Foreman out of that terrifying place and laid him safely on the training table.

 

“When I came to, my doctor, Keith West, was standing behind me and immediately grabbed my head for support,” he said, “but in my mind something far beyond what was happening in that room consumed me. I wasn’t scared, because at that point I knew I was alive, but I said, ‘Dr. West, please move your hands, because the thorns on his head are making Him bleed,’ and I reached up to touch my forehead. When I did, I saw blood pouring down my forehead, but there was no cut there from the boxing match.”

 

Prior to that moment, although Foreman believed in God, he considered religion a weakness. To him, Christ’s crucifixion was only a story people watched on television at Easter time.

 

“I remember seeing Joe Frazier holding a Bible in his hand prior to a fight and thinking all that religion was a weakness,” he said. “From time to time, my masseur, Perry Fuller, would share Scripture with me. Even my mother, when I was young, would tell me to read my Bible. Yeah, right.”

 

But in that hot, stuffy dressing room, God was revealing Himself to George Foreman in a way he would never forget.

 

Next, I said, ‘Mr. Fuller, move your hands. He’s bleeding where they crucified Him.’ I then looked at my hands, and they were covered with blood, but nobody else in the room could see it.”

 

What they could see was a transformation. Foreman sat upright on the tabletop yelling, “Jesus Christ is alive in me! I’m clean! I’ve been born again!”

 

The faces of everyone in the room turned ashen and no one spoke. “They thought they were seeing a ghost,” Foreman recalled. “I danced around the room quoting Scripture passages I had never heard in my life.”

 

Although at the time Foreman didn’t fully understand the impact of what was happening to him in that room, he prayed for guidance.

 

“I can’t say how often I have wondered why the Lord chose me,” he said, “but I can say that He did call an old boxer out of the shadows and gave him a second chance. I had lived full of hate all my life. My conscience was encrusted with hate. I had been involved in a sport, obsessed with an activity, and malicious, destructive thoughts filled my mind, and in a strange, indirect way, it motivated me.”

 

After Foreman’s rebirth, he realized that God had a better plan. It’s called forgiveness, and that, according to Foreman, is how he finally had peace of mind.

 

“I had hurt so many people in my life,” he explained, “that I was determined to find everyone I had hurt and forgive them. It didn’t matter to me what they had done, I wanted to find them, forgive them, and let them know I loved them. Some didn’t want my forgiveness, but the love I gave them really messed them up.”

 

Foreman had the opportunity to prove his forgiveness mettle several months later when he discovered that an old friend he had known and trusted since his youth had cheated him out of a home and possessions he owned in another part of the country.

 

“One day, I found out that this fellow had sold that home without my permission,” Foreman said. “Without having any input from me, he sold the home and everything inside, including mementos from early in my career as well as my biggest boxing wins. A lot of that stuff was probably very valuable. But I had become a Christian in the meantime, and I felt nothing but compassion towards that man when I saw him. Scared the heck out of him too. I never said I was a total winner.”

 

“A lot of people ask me why the Lord picked me for this experience,” Foreman said. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve asked myself the same question. Part of it, I believe, is because of who I am. After all, when you’re the World Boxing Champion, a lot of doors open to you. I’ve met presidents, movie stars, and most of all, other athletes, and I share my story with all of them. Some of them shy away from me because they don’t want to talk about it, but a lot do.”

 

About one year after his conversion, the late soul singer Marvin Gaye called Foreman at his Texas ranch. After the pleasantries, Foreman started to relate his experience to his friend, but Gaye backed away, saying he didn’t want to talk about it. The men never spoke again. Shortly afterward, Gaye was shot to death by his minister father after a dispute.

 

“Before he was killed, I hope Marvin found peace,” Foreman said. “I only wish I could have been the one who helped him.”

 

A month after his conversion, Foreman shared his testimony with the congregation of Robert Schuller’s Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California. While he was there, he noticed Schuller’s son reading a Bible. Foreman was watching him read over his shoulder when a verse stood out to him, “If you then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God.”

 

“I remember thinking that that’s how I felt, risen with Christ!” Foreman explained.

 

Shortly after he returned to Houston, Foreman started a church, The Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, on a small patch of land with a dilapidated building on it. Over time, the building was refurbished and he now holds services every Sunday.

 

“We will only have 50 or 60 people attending our church on any given Sunday,” Foreman said. “It’s a mystery to me why people will pay good money to watch me fight, fill an arena, but won’t come to hear me preach. Maybe it’s just the Lord trying to keep me humble.”

 

Although Foreman continues with his endorsement campaigns and other media appearances, the main focus of his life is spreading the good news of Christ.

 

“My message? Christ is alive! I know, because he changed me,” Foreman said. “I get up every morning to spread that message, and I am going to keep spreading that message every day of my life until I can’t do it anymore.”

 

George Foreman’s latest book, God in My Corner, was published in May by Thomas Nelson Inc. He lives on his ranch in Marshall, Texas.