Foreman’s sizzling journey to grill mogul

To some, he’s a two-time heavyweight boxing champion. And to others, he’s the genius behind the lean, mean fat-reducing grilling machine. In his new memoir, “Knockout Entrepreneur,” George Foreman explains how he went from ring master to building a multimillion-dollar electronic business. An excerpt:

When One Dream Ends, Dream Another
When I realized what a great product the grill was, I promoted it passionately. I could tell that my boxing career was winding down, but my career as a pitchman for the grill was on its way up, so I talked about the grill everywhere I went — even at boxing matches! For instance, I fought my last boxing match against Shannon Briggs at Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City in November 1997. Shannon was twenty-five years of age with orange-colored dreadlocks, and I was forty-eight and bald. He weighed 227 pounds, and I weighed 260. Shannon Briggs had won thirty fights, with one loss and twenty-four knockouts; I had won seventy-six matches, with four losses and sixty-eight knockouts. Plus, by then I had won boxing’s most prestigious title — heavyweight champion of the world — twice, the second time at forty-five years of age.

When the fight began, Briggs came out quickly, snapping a sharp left jab. He caught me with that jab at least twice in that first round, and it really hurt. But when the bell rang, I went back to my corner and stood — just as I had for every fight since my return to boxing ten years earlier — while my opponent sat down and rested. My trainer, Angelo Dundee, gave me some water and I was ready to go back to work.

The bell rang for round two. Briggs came out fast again, but halfway through the round, I connected with three left jabs as I continued pressing toward Briggs, who was backpedaling. The younger, faster fighter kept trying to move away from me, but I advanced on him anytime I could. The match continued like that for the first five rounds with me constantly applying the pressure. Toward the end of the sixth, though, Briggs bounced several blows off my shaved head and a couple into my face, causing my eyes to swell a bit.

By the eighth round, Briggs must have thought I was getting tired — I wasn’t. I connected with numerous hard punches, one of which was a straight shot to Shannon’s jaw. Craackk! All over the arena the crowd heard the blow and gasped as the leather of my glove smashed into Shannon’s jawbone, and for a moment I thought he might go down. Briggs hung on and I kept after him, but he got me with a hard hook just before the bell rang, ending the round.

We continued exchanging hard blows for twelve rounds, and nearly everyone in the arena thought that I was winning, far ahead on points — everyone except two of the three judges. During the final round the entire audience was on its feet, the crowd yelling and cheering us on. Blood was dripping from Shannon’s nose as we exchanged strong punches in the center of the ring. Just before the final bell rang, Briggs let loose a flurry of punches and a lot of them landed. The fight ended with both of us standing and still swinging.

It seemed to take forever for the judges to tally their scores. When the decision was announced that Briggs had won, his cornermen jumped into the ring and lifted Shannon onto their shoulders as the crowd booed the verdict. Most fans, I later learned, had me winning eight or nine of the twelve rounds. Many thought that the fight had been rigged and that I had been robbed. I felt I had won the fight; the people believed I had won the fight. Even Shannon Briggs looked surprised that the judges declared him the winner. But the judges said that he had won, so I walked across the ring and congratulated the young boxer.

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In the Good Book, I read about a time when King David, the second king of Israel, was discouraged, and even the people he had hoped to help were speaking evil of him.  Distressed as he was, he decided that he would encourage himself and exercise his faith in God.¹ Sometimes that is exactly what you have to do. Don’t wait around for everyone else to pat you on the back or tell you how talented you are; pat yourself on the back, and remind yourself of all the good things you have going for you.

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Anyone can be encouraged when things are going well, when you are winning at every point. That’s easy. But when you get knocked down on the canvas of life, that’s the time to encourage yourself. Get up and remind yourself: This is a new opportunity; my best days are ahead; this is going to be the best time of my life; my business and career are going to flourish. What happened yesterday is over and done. You really can’t do anything about what has happened in your past, but you can do a lot about your attitude regarding the past. Now is the time to seek the next opportunity.

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