After his loss to Jimmy Young on March 17, 1977, George Foreman was converted to Christ, and returned to Texas a different person. He retired from boxing, became an ordained minister and an evangelist, with his mission in life to the preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. He founded his own church, and started the George Foreman Youth and Community Center, a place for youngsters to to play sports, and get adult supervision.
For ten years, George admittedly didn’t own a television. His only entertainment was his radio, and listened to Larry King most evenings on it. The last thing on his mind was boxing, since he spent most of his time preaching and traveling, sharing his testimony of what God had done for him.
The problem however for him became money. George lived on a trust fund from the Ali fight, and by 1986, he was running out of cash. It was then that he decided to return to the ring, saying he got tired of begging for money when he traveled to preach. His return was met with skepticism mostly, especially when he called promoters like Butch Lewis, and they insisted he stay retired.
George had made his mind up however, went into training, and dropped over 60 pounds to get down to 267. His first bout back was on March 9, 1987 in Sacramento, California against trial horse Steve Zouski. The ten round fight was stopped by TKO in the fourth, and Foreman had his first win under his belt.
I remember being in our kitchen watching the 11 o’clock sports report when I heard the news of the fight. My jaw dropped, because there had been no news in the papers at all about this. I loved comebacks, and excitement began to stir up in me, thinking of how cool it was that George was back!.
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