George Foreman on 'Your World'

This is a rush transcript from "Your World With Neil Cavuto," May 29, 2009. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

NEIL CAVUTO, HOST: Two presidents, one event, no buzz: George W. Bush and Bill Clinton appearing together as we speak right now. The event just started.

Here is how organizers promoted it, though, calling it a "conversation with presidents." Well, no wonder nobody is talking about it.

Here is how we think they should have promoted it, something like this: a presidential smackdown.

Former heavyweight George Foreman, who could sell anything, here to weigh in.

George, great to see you.

George, they screwed this whole marketing thing up. That's what I think. What do you think?

GEORGE FOREMAN, CO-CHAIRMAN, GEORGE FOREMAN ENTERPRISES: That's right.

They should have been talking about, if you want to draw the people, you have got to start a fire. It should have been billed. Everybody in boxing needs a nickname: Smokin' Joe Frazier; The Louisville Lip. I was even called a Frankenstein monster.

• Video: Watch Cavuto's interview

(LAUGHTER)

FOREMAN: There should have been a name.

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: Well, what would you have called President Bush or President Clinton? Would you have names for them?

FOREMAN: They should have promoted it George — what is it? — "Wanted Dead or Alive Dempsey" Bush against Bill "Float Like a Butterfly, Sting like a Beast With Your IPOs" Clinton.

(LAUGHTER)

FOREMAN: And then people would say, I want to take the gloves off. I want to hear what they have to say. Start the offensive. Start the — they are saying anything. Take the shirts, the ties off. We have had enough of those conversations, debates on television.

I would have had a ringside seat to hear them fight a little bit, in the seat, mind you. Take the ties off. Greatest fight, the matchup of the centuries, the two people who changed the world in eight years. They're matched up together to change it again.

Oh, I could go on and on.

CAVUTO: Say — yes. Well, boy, man, you should be there, George. You're wasting your time talking to me right now. So, let me ask you, you — you — I really think you could sell anything. That whole Foreman Grill thing, no offense, George. I love you dearly. Someone came up with a grill on a tilt and ran with it.

And you — you are an expert at it. You sold how many of those? Millions of those? You're set for — for — for many lives.

(CROSSTALK)

FOREMAN: Oh, well over — well over maybe 125 million.

CAVUTO: Is that right?

FOREMAN: Yes.

CAVUTO: Well — well, see, maybe that's what they should have done. You get a free Foreman Grill if you go to the — the conversation tonight.

They didn't do that.

So, I had an ad guy on here yesterday.

FOREMAN: See, because the videotapes — you have got to — they have got to make certain that the tapes of this sells as well.

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: Exactly. Right.

FOREMAN: The — the rematch — the rematch has got to even be bigger.

CAVUTO: Well, you know, it is sort of like a dream fight, because these guys never had the opportunity to challenge each other.

It's sort of like if there was...

FOREMAN: I like that, a dream right.

CAVUTO: James Rosen was — our big boxing fan here, he was saying, he wondered what things would have been like had then Cassius Clay, Muhammad Ali, never been forced to retire because of his protest of the Vietnam War, and you had fought him earlier. That was sort of like a dream fight long before your battle in '74.

Have you ever thought of that?

FOREMAN: Yes, that would have been a nightmare fight for me.

(LAUGHTER)

CAVUTO: Yes.

FOREMAN: Not a dream.

I didn't want to — good I did fight him when he was older.

(LAUGHTER)

FOREMAN: And I lost then.

CAVUTO: Yes, you lost then. It didn't turn out too well.

But I'm wondering that maybe part of the appeal with this is two heavyweights who never battled each other, who, in a dream matchup, are.

Should it have been sold that way?

FOREMAN: It should have been sold about a fight, because the way you sell anything is, like, two people punching one another. It's going to be a knockdown, drag-out. Bush-Clinton, knockdown, drag-out, Arkansas, hook em', Horns.

There has got to be some drama to this.

(LAUGHTER)

CAVUTO: You know, I'm just wondering, though. Obviously, they — they — they sold enough tickets for this, George, to make it. I don't know how it is going right now. It — you know, it didn't sell out gangbusters. They didn't sell out all the tickets.

But they did get lot of people selling it. And people will come back, George, and say, well, you know, this might work for George Foreman, as a, you know, two-time heavyweight champ and now a movie star — I saw you in the latest "Museum" picture — but it would not be dignified for former presidents to — to do the same thing.

What do you say?

FOREMAN: Oh, when you're raising — when you are trying to raise some money, it is dignified when you come up with — when you're in the high chips, when you have got a lot of money to show for what you have done. That's dignity, because you can do so much with funds.

CAVUTO: Oh, that is a good point. So, yes, you might — you might compromise a little bit, but, once you have got the money and the appeal, you're there.

Well, while I have got you here...

FOREMAN: But they have already did a...

CAVUTO: Go ahead.

FOREMAN: They have already been pretty dignified. They have been excellent presidents, one this side and the other. They don't have to worry about that. They will go down in history as — with a lot of dignity.

CAVUTO: We always talk dream teams, right? And we talked — I have always wondered about Gerry Cooney and you, and whether that would have ever come to pass.

And, you know, when you — when these kind of things happen, and you fought Cooney, I mean, how do you promote something like that? And that — that was made for pay-per-view. But you know what I'm saying? How do you promote something like that?

FOREMAN: Well, you talk about a puncher meeting a puncher.

And the most devastating about a puncher meeting another puncher, when you throw hard shots, you automatically extend your chin. And you have got to make certain that, hey, the puncher who gets hit is going to get knocked out, because his chin is exposed.

That's what happened with Gerry Cooney and George Foreman. He extended his chin, and I caught him before he could get mine.

CAVUTO: All right.

FOREMAN: Of course, I had a — I had an advantage, because I had two chins.

(LAUGHTER)

CAVUTO: I think we're looking at Jimmy Young right there. There's another bout here.

But, real quickly, I mean, you are the champion of keeping expectations low, an old guy who came back. And everyone laughed at you. And you beat them one at a time, until you became champ again.

George Bush has the same rap against him. He's in against a seasoned debater, a much smoother guy. Does he keep those low expectations, real quick?

FOREMAN: You know, you don't worry — don't try to be anything but who you are. George Bush has got his power punch. He knows who he is. He's going to tell it just like it is.

CAVUTO: Yes.

FOREMAN: If he makes a certain mistake, hey, just be George Bush. Don't worry about debating with this guy. Just go for the knockout.

CAVUTO: All right.

We will see. We will know soon. We will get the — we will get the — the round-by-round reports very soon.

George Foreman, always, always a pleasure. Thank you, sir, very much.

FOREMAN: Thank you.

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