Former heavyweight boxing champion and pastor George Foreman recently opened up about his life and a near-death experience in 1977. He also said he wants people who see the upcoming movie about his life to know he’s proof that there’s a living God.

Seventy-four-year-old Foreman is the focus of the faith-based biopic “Big George Foreman,” which stars Khris Davis as Foreman and Forest Whitaker as Doc Broadus, Foreman’s trainer, releasing in theaters on April 28. When he was 24, Foreman won the heavyweight championship and again at 45, becoming the oldest title holder in history. However, Foreman says a near-death experience between those titles changed his life and led him to become a pastor.

The near-death experience happened in 1977. By then, Foreman had lost his first title to Muhammad Ali in 1974 and was attempting to return to another heavyweight championship fight. However, Foreman lost that 1977 fight to Jimmy Young. According to Foreman, he was filled with pride. He told Christian Headlines, “I was in the dressing room, walking back and forth and saying, ‘I don’t care about this boxing match I lost. I’m still George Foreman.’ You know, I can win this next month, and I got my movie career, I got my money in the bank. And I could go home and retire now and die.”

Foreman continued, “That sneaked into my conversation, ‘die.’ And I couldn’t get it out. All of a sudden, I faced death, and I knew I was about to die. So with that in mind, I heard a voice within me say, ‘You believe in God; why are you scared to die?’ And I was afraid; I really was. And I started fighting to keep my life in me. I eventually lost the fight.” Foreman said he died in the dressing room that night, but God revived him. The moment is shown in the movie “Big Foreman.”

“I was gone out of this life. Above me, under me, all around me was nothing,” Foreman told Christian Headlines of his near-death experience. “The saddest thoughts you can even come to mind, multiply it. I was in a dump yard of nothing and sorrowfulness. I remember thinking there was no hope for me – like someone had dropped me out in a sea. There was no land.” At that moment, Foreman said he cried out, “I still believe there’s a God!” Suddenly, “a hand reached in and pulled me out of nothing and death.”

Foreman says after he came back to life, he fought eight men to get out of the shower. After seeing the blood on his head and hands, he cried, “Jesus Christ has come alive in me!” Then, Foreman said he started kissing everyone in the dressing room. Eventually, he tried to leave the dressing room but was brought back because he didn’t have clothes on.

Foreman quit boxing, began preaching and opened a youth center. When he ran out of money for his ministry in the late 1980s, he started boxing again, winning his second heavyweight title in 1994. He said he hopes that this film inspires audiences, saying, “The most important thing I’d like for the people who go to the movie to take out is that there is hope. There’s a living God. And I’m proof of it. That’s all – forget about the boxing, winning, losing, and all of that. Faith in God is what that movie is about.”