My friends know that they're my friends - even my enemies know that they're my friends.
— George Foreman
I wanted to be champ of the world, but I kept hoping something would happen to Frazier. I didn't want to fight him. Nobody wanted to fight Joe Frazier.
There shouldn't be budget problems. There is so much money that goes untapped. If every athlete gave 5% of what they earned, there wouldn't be any budget problems.
Growing up poor, I didn't even have a lunch to take to school. Lunch was 26 cents, and we didn't even know what 26 cents looked like. I didn't love school because I wanted to disguise that I was poorer than everybody else.
I think that every boxer should understand he's on the pedestal for a short span. It's best that you use boxing and don't let boxing use you. Use boxing to sell, because people are selling you through your boxing career, so you have to learn to sell yourself, and you'll never starve.
In raising children, life brings forth those things where you do what you should never have done and what I taught you never to do. And when my kids have done those things, I just kind of look at them and say, 'Now you know life.'
Preaching is the most original thing I've ever done. There's nothing familiar about it. You have to be brave.
It would be hard to throw a punch to someone who wasn't a boxer, who wasn't in the ring, and who didn't have on a pair of boxing gloves and who hadn't been training.
I cannot remember a time when I was not getting into fights.
Just look at the great Nelson Mandela. He came out of prison and saved his entire country. Some of the best people in the world have spent time in prison.
Oh, there's nothing more dangerous in life at getting hurt at than love itself. People are hurt in love affairs and never recover, more than a boxing match.
All the dogs I have are German shepherds from Germany, and I fly them back to Germany to show them.
As a matter of fact, there was a period of time, especially in my first career, when that's the only one who would work out with me: my dogs. As you get better and better working out, there's no one who can keep up with you running.
All my sons are named George Foreman. They all know where they came from.
I dread handshakes. I've got some problems with my hands, and everywhere I go, people want to impress me with their grip. To make it worse, now women are coming up with that firm shake.
If you can maintain that integrity in whatever you do, you can't go wrong. That's what I tell my kids, anyway.
The referee is going to be the most important person in the ring tonight besides the fighters.
In 1973 I became heavyweight champion of the world with 38 victories, no defeats as a professional. You get to a point where you think you cannot lose. I felt like I had the greatest power with my fists, I was the strongest man in the world.
Frazier was not a big man at all. Frazier was about 5'9, but he would make anyone run. Put up your dukes and cover up because he's coming. He never backed up from anyone.
I remember in school once the teacher gave us a speech about anyone can make it if they try, and then she looked at me and said. 'I don't know what you are going to do, Georgie.'
'Iron' Mike Tyson is the last boxer who was truly embraced by the media. They followed him around. You didn't know what he was going to do next: bite you, cut you, fight you. When you think about it, that defines him - it was an exciting adventure.
Boxing has been the most difficult thing I've ever done. The biggest challenge in my life. I was a boxer. That was hard. Everything else is pretty easy.
I named all my sons George Edward Foreman. And I tell people, 'If you're going to get hit as many times as I've been hit by Mohammad Ali, Joe Frazier, Ken Norton, Evander Holyfield - you're not going to remember many names.'
I dread handshakes. I've got some problems with my hands, and everywhere I go, people want to impress me with their grip. To make it worse, now women are coming up with that firm shake. So I'll say, 'Gimme five!' If a boy wants a handshake, I'll just give him a hug.
You don't have to try to hurt people and be angry to be an athlete.
But boxing was my profession. I had to go back the second time because I was broke and I couldn't just go and get a college degree and earn it. I had too many bills, too many families.
I think its so good for boxing when a new guy or new blood as we call it, makes a big statement.
I hope to have one more boxing match at the age of 55. Given that demographic at the age of 55 to 65, you've got to make a statement with your life. Otherwise, you are just existing.
After you work out, you have your dog with you. There's no better companion. You've got to have a friend. I didn't like opponents who had dogs with them. Because you know they had a little edge. They have a friend.
You may have even an ex-wife or an ex-husband, but you can never have ex-children.
Evil lurks where disappointment lodges.
Changing your nature is the hardest thing to do. But I discovered that you can be who you choose to be.
When I was a boxer, I wanted to be champion of the world, not the richest man in the world.
Everybody wants to be somebody. The thing you have to do is give them confidence they can. You have to give a kid a dream.
When you're in a single-parent home, they try to give you a good foundation, but by the time you're 4 or 5 years old, from that point on you're pretty much on your own.
You wouldn't meet a Joe Frazier down today and then up tomorrow, said hello to big shots then ignore someone on the lower level; he was the most consistent human being. What you see is what you get.
I feel that I had been rescued from the gutter by America. One day I was under the gutter, chased by police, thinking dogs were going to get me. I laid there listening to the dogs and the gutter. The next day, there I am standing on the Olympic platform, and you hear the anthem. I was proud.
It's very important that people know that I really enjoy everything that has happened to me. And I tell my kids... you're not going to be the tallest, fastest, prettiest, the best track runner, but you can be the nicest human being that someone has ever met in their life. And I just want to leave that legacy that being nice is a true treasure.
The fighters who give it all will be around for next year. Give it all you've got. Don't save anything.
It's strange because you - your life goes so swiftly. You look up one day you're a teenager, the next day you're a grandfather and you want to decide, 'I sure hope my kids don't make the same mistakes.'
I am so happy to be alive. That's the one thing I'd like for people to know. Sometimes people walk by and slip up and say the wrong thing about me, and I'll smile. They wonder why am I smiling. Because I'm happy that I'm alive.
I started a youth center in Houston. The kids would come in and want to learn to box; they wanted to tear up the world, beat up the world. And I'd try to show them they didn't need anger. They didn't need all that killing instinct they'd read about. You can be a human being and pursue boxing as a sport.
I was a tiger, a good fighter, in good shape, but I was always nervous before boxing matches.
Sonny Liston stood up to me and actually made me give ground. No one has ever done that to me before or since.
I get up in the morning looking for an adventure.
A Jack Russell terrier? My god. He'll burn you up. They never stop. A German shepherd, you can only go so many miles.
I look at my children and one thing I'm most proud of, in my heart, are my children.
You don't know what it is to be heavyweight champ of the world until you become the heavyweight champ of the world.
As a child I was sometimes so hungry that I used to dream that one day I'd get locked in a grocery store.
Generally when there's a lot of smoke... there's just a whole lot more smoke.
