George Foreman III "Declaration of Independence"
Being the son of a legend can be difficult for some. A famous last name comes with pressure and responsibility. At 25 years old George Foreman the 3rd, (known as "Monk" to his friends) has carried more weight on his shoulders that most will see in a lifetime.
When I spoke with Monk, I talked to a man that has his head on straight and is about his business. As a fulltime manager of father, George is determined to earn his own money and use his various different endeavors to craft his own legacy.
His affiliation with SMC Records poses the question is he destant for a career in the music industry but the real question everyone wants to know is if he will ever throw on the gloves and get in the ring. Has he ever thought about it, you will have to read to find out.
MT- The Public got an idea from the show, but can you give us a idea of what a typical day for you is like?
GF3- A typical day in my life…well, I manage my father which is my main priority, so I get up in the morning, prioritize my day, return phone calls, return emails and focus on tending to all things George foreman 24/7. (haha) At some point throughout the day I sit with my father and go over all his business with him. In a nutshell, this is pretty much what I do.
MT- A lot of pressure?
GF3- It’s a lot of pressure because that type of day is the type of day I have when I’m in town. Most days I’m out of town. I travel, well, every year I do well over 100,000 miles. So, I average over 2,000 miles a week in travel and that’s just with continental airlines. That doesn’t include , over seas travel. So, the pressure is two-fold, number one is that you’re always on the road and you always feel like you’re behind because you don’t get to sit in the office and get things squared away. Secondly I grew up as kind of an academic guy, I was always studying and doing well in school. In school you mess up and get a bad grade, but in this world you mess up and it means 10’s and 100’s of thousands of dollars down the drain, even millions. You call that pressure?
MT - Wow
GF3- It could mean a bad article and some bad press, it could mean losing your job, your livelihood, you know. Stakes are a lot higher in this business cuz the mistakes I make although I pay for them but the person I manage pays for them even more, they’re the ones who really feel the loss. So, it’s a real stressful job.
MT- Even though its your father he doesn’t take it easy on you at all does he?
GF3- No, no, even more so than someone who wasn’t’ his son because it’s a very personal thing when you work with someone you’re related to. It feels like it’s a lifestyle more than a job. If he calls me at 9 o’clock at night. At 10, 11:30, 12:00 I gotta answer the phone and whatever needs to get done has to get done. I can’t say oh, I clocked out. He’s definitely a lot harder on me…it’s definitely a lot harder than some people would assume. He doesn’t take it easy on me just because I’m his son at all.
MT- What was it like having a camera added into your crazy schedule?
GF3- That was work. I always thought that the things that I do, even though my lifestyle is hard, I felt that it was a lifestyle, I never felt like what I did was a job. But when we started filming for the first time I felt like this is a job. You always had to be accountable timewise. For 6 almost 8 weeks, everything had to be planned out. The cameras had to know where we were going to be at what time, if we were going to do something, could we wait and hour and do it an hour later and um, you know what are you going to be wearing. You had to have your gear together. And not only that, I had to be present in my scenes but also had to be present during the scenes of my brothers, sisters, any time one of my family members was on camera I always had to be around behind the camera because me and my brother executive produced the show and we just wanted to make sure everything came out right.
MT- I didn’t know that. So you have executive producing under your belt as well.
GF3- Oh, yeah. That’s another one of the many hats I wear. Me and my brother George Foreman jr., As far as this show is concerned, it completely monopolized my life for at least 6 weeks and made it very hard to really effectively do anything else. So that’s why it was a good thing to do ONE time, but I just don’t know about another… because of the time it took from me, too many other business ventures had to suffer. When you want something to be done right, it consumes you.
MT- So I take it we wont be seeing any GF3 reality love shows coming up anytime soon?
GF3- I didn’t say that (haha). Money talks you know.
MT- As far as the family show, it’s a possibility that you guys might do another season?
GF3 - Oh yeah. It’s definitely a possibility. Um, but like I said it was something that, we definitely look at it in a different light now. It exposes your family, luckily everything came out pretty positive, but it’s a lot more work than we thought it would be, but what we are planning on doing is continuing with a spin-off tv show for my father and maybe even myself, but as far as getting the whole family into one show, that is haaaard work! Maybe my father possibly myself, but I like being behind the camera, maybe one or two other family members, but not the whole family. Our biggest thing is preserving our lifestyle and making sure we can always relax at home, and you don’t want to give that up too much, not for tv, not for anything.
MT- Did watching yourself in front of the camera give you any aspirations to get into acting?
GF3- You know, I never saw myself being an actor, but to tell you the truth I never thought I’d be on tv either. To date I’ve narrated a documentary, appeared on the today show, Jimmy Kimmel, a the tv show on E! called cattle drive, and most recently Family Foreman, so I guess anything is possible.
MT- Yeah I remember that, you decided to leave the site and take a trip without permission.
GF3- Right, so I’ve done documentaries for tv shows and I never planned on doing these things, really had no drive to do these things and so, who knows what the future may hold for me. Even if provided the opportunity I don’t think I would be very excited about appearing in a movie unless it was a cameo and I was only there because I was famous for doing something else. But I do have an interest in getting in developing more TV and movie projects as a producer. I’d also like to host a show maybe related to boxing or do some boxing commentary. These are two things that I would like to do in the entertainment world.
MT- With your father being a very successful boxer, it that a strong reality that you would be able to use his celebrity to get into it?
GF3- Yeah, it’s two-fold. I can definitely use his celebrity to create opportunity, it’s my name and I can’t run away from it, but his reputation not only as a boxer but as an expert commentator would help me create opportunities to get in the business as well as the knowledge to succeed. Over the years since I was 12, 13, 14, 15 whenever I wasn’t in class I was on the road with my dad going to these boxing matches and when he was in commentary I was literally right behind him for almost 10years. He was in HBO.
MT- I remember that as a shorty.
GF3- You remember that?
MT- I actually do
GF3- So, I kind of grew up doing that , I grew up around boxing but I also grew up around the whole side of sports casting and commentary. And I grew up talking boxing and being around a lot of people with experience, so I definitely have a background there as well.
MT- With your father being such a great boxer, have you ever thought about putting on the gloves. I know people ask you this all the time.
GF3- Definitely have thought about it. Haven’t acted on it yet. Since we were kids, my father has always told us about the importance of education. It’s possibly the only sport where you don’t “play”, with boxing every time you get in the ring you fight and someone can get seriously hurt, you might sustain an injury that they have to live with the rest of their life so I always say you play basketball, you play football, you don’t play boxing and because of that it’s a sport that you can’t just say “I’m going to devote myself to school, boxing and raising family” and do all three of those to the best of your ability. You have to focus on one thing. If you want to be good at boxing and make sure you don’t get hurt, and achieve some greatness you have to focus on that one thing and virtually nothing else at all, so I haven’t been able to find that type of time in the past, whether it be because I was in boarding school or because I was getting my degree, so that’s the only reason I haven’t really taken a shot at it, other than that it’s definitely always on my mind, so if I found the time I’d love to get involved. You know my dad wasn’t a great student, I don’t even think he graduated from high school, but he was a great boxer, so at least that’s the one thing that I did take from him. That’s it, getting in the ring, all the other things I think I probably took from my mother.
MT- You commenting on education, I know that for your 1st 2 years of high school you went to the boarding school Governor Dummer and for your last 2 you went to Culver Military Academy. I guess I have to ask, why would you go to a Military school?
GF3- Actually, just to correct that, I spent 7th through 9th grade in Boston at Fay School, I spent 1 year at Governor Dummer Academy, and then I came to culver for my last 2 years so you were just off by a year. I had to clarify that incase any Fay Alumni read this.
MT- Was that you decision? Did you decide to go to the different schools?
GF3- Yeah, that was my decision, Fay only went up to 9th grade then I intended to stay at Governor Dummer for the rest of my high school career, and to lead in to answering your question of what possessed me to go to a Military school, all my life I wanted to go to the air force academy. I wanted to be in the military and serve my country, and I also wanted to be a pilot so I figured what better way to achieve these two goals than to go to the air force academy. I found out about Culver’s airport and I didn’t know any other schools that had their own airport and so I said I will go to culver just so that I can be close to an airport. The sacrifice I made was being at a military school. Imagine the shock when I called my parents and said I would like to go to a military school and I told them, and I was asking them would they let me go to a military school and they were like, uh, yeah sure, ok, where’s the catch?. So they thought that was pretty odd, and I don’t think they understood that for a long time but that’s why I went to culver. And obviously I’m not at the air force academy right now and that’s because after being at a military academy for 2 years I realized the military wasn’t for me at that time. I wanted to get out and kind of see what the world was like, I’d been in boarding school pretty much all my life, that’s why I’m not there. But, at some point down the line I would like to become an officer.
MT- Did all of your siblings go to boarding schools or was it just you?
GF3- Me and 4 other siblings of mine. One of my sisters, Natalie Foreman, Leola Foreman, George Foreman 4th, and George Foreman 5th actually all went to boarding school. Prep school, that’s what they like call it.
MT- Yeah prep school is the more appropriate term.
GF3- It’s more positive when you say Prep right?
MT- I know that you have taken a interest in the music industry, I remember reading an article on Allhiphop.com about you, can you talk to me about your endeavors?
GF3- Me and my brother got involved with the company SMC records, out of the Bay area. My brother is a little more active on that side of the business. We partner in everything that we do. The label recently signed Rakim, Killer Mike, Capone-N-Noreaga, and Pastor Troy.
MT- That huge! We’re talking about legendary Rakim?
GF3- Yeah.
MT- Who are you listening to right now? What’s in your CD Player? If I was to hop in your car and turn in the player what would be playing?
GF3- I’m listening to the latest Kanye Album. I like it.
MT- I like it too.
GF3- I like it cause is something different. I expect him to come back with another CD that’s more his style but it was cool for him to do something different for his fans. So that’s what I have in player right now. And of course, I always have some type of Jay-Z sitting in # 6 in the cd changer. Also, LiL Wayne is in the changer as well.
MT- Word. So who’s your favorite rapper of all time?
GF3- Jay-Z.
MT- What’s your favorite CD?
GF3- Black Album.
MT- Excluding your father, who’s your favorite boxer of all time.
GF3- Favorite boxer of all time, ummm it has to be Joe Louis. I don’t even have to think about it. I say that because of his discipline. Not only what he did, he held the title for 11years. He gave up at least 2 years of his prime when he was serving his country in WW2. He came back and continued to defend the title. It was not just what he did, but the way he did it. He always tried to go for the knockout even when he didn’t have to because he dominated his opponents and wanted to please the crowd. He was a true fighting champion.
MT- speaking of boxing and sports, there’s a large amount of popularity going towardsMMA right now. Can you give me your opinion on MMA, where you think it’s headed and what you think of it overall as a sport?
GF3- um, as a sport, just a sport I’m not entirely impressed with it, but I’m impressed with elements of it. I’m not impressed with the idea that a person can quit to be able to tap out and still have your dignity and the respect of your fans. I think it should be something where if you can’t take it, your corner should throw in the towel, or you quit and are humiliated. One of the elements that I’m really impressed with and can’t get enough of it is when the guys knee each other in the mouth. I’ve never seen nothing like that in my life. That I respect. Anybody that gets in that ring, they have my full respect, I just don’t like the rules of the sport where you can just quit and that be accepted, because in boxing you can’t quit without being humiliated. a lot of people feel that MMA has taken away from boxing and is hurting boxing but my opinion is, and people should be able to see over the next couple of years, that it’s actually benefiting boxing because it’s created a lot of fans of hand to hand combat. People who wouldn’t have normally watched a boxing match, they’ll maybe stop and order a fight, or sit down and watch a fight with someone who’s watching just because they have a background in fighting and like MMA. I think it’s opened up boxing to a whole new crowd of people who wouldn’t have liked boxing had they not fell in love with MMA.
MT- I’ve never looked at it from that perspective before.
GF3- Yeah that’s what I think.
MT- Do you think that Mayweather is the greatest pound for pound of all time?
GF3- No. Before you talk about greatest pound for pound with Mayweather you have to talk about Sugar Ray Robinson you gotta talk about Joe Louis. I’m not going to rank them but you gotta talk about Sugar Ray Robinson and Joe Louis first. Now there was a guy named Henry Armstrong who had the feather weight, lightweight and welterweight titles all at one time. And, he defended them all at one time. You have to mention those guys before you talk about greatest pound for pound of all time.
MT- Its Saturday night, you don’t have to work on Sunday, what is George Foreman III doing?
GF3- Umm all I ever do on SAT is going to church, go back to see what fight is on HBO, SHOWTIME or ESPN and then order wings from Wing stop and eat about 50 of them.
MT- Being as humble as you are, does it amaze you how out of control and entitled some of your peers act?
GF3- When you say peers what do you mean?
MT- Children of
GF3- Yeah, Yeah I see. It doesn’t surprise me because when you see people act a certain way when they come from wealth, they just don’t know. Umm my dad told me a story once about how in the 70’s he went to go look for a Lion and Tiger. He actually owned a lion and tiger and when he went to shop for his first lion and tiger and he walked right in the cage with a couple lions. He just walked in and looked at them, he petted them and the handlers couldn’t believe. They thought he was one of the bravest people ever and the trainer was just like no….. George just doesn’t know (the danger)… So when I see people like that they don’t know what its like to go through hard times. That’s what people don’t know about us, we come from a father with wealth, but there was a time in the 80’s when we shopped at goodwill. And I can’t tell you that we know about hard times like a lot of other people know it but our dad always takes us back to where he grew up and he always talks about the poverty he grew up in, so whenever we get a little sassy, he finds a way to bring us back to reality really quick. His saying is that one should always stay in the basement, because you can’t fall out of a basement window.
