Ms Foreman join boxing daughters club

Ms Foreman join boxing daughters club
ASSOCIATED PRESS

LAS VEGAS, FEBRUARY 11: First there was Laila Ali. Then Jacqui Frazier-Lyde made her debut. Now Freeda Foreman wants a piece of the action. What's next, a female Rumble in the Jungle?

``Oh yeah, that was the fight with Ali and Frazier, wasn't it?'' Freeda Foreman said on Thursday.

Actually, it was Ali and George Foreman, Freeda's father, in the 1974 fight in Zaire that became one of the most famous heavyweight fights of the era.

But you might forgive Freeda she didn't know the nickname of her father's most devastating loss. She wasn't born until three years later, when big George was doing more preaching than fighting.

Freeda does know what sells, though, and that's why the 23-year-old is following in the footsteps of both her father and the daughters of Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali.

``My goal is to change history and knock Laila out,'' she said. ``It's not revenge, but the opportunity is there for me.''

It's an opportunity that her father doesn't exactly embrace.

``He flat out doesn't likeit,'' Freeda Foreman said. ``But I do have his love and support. That's what counts.''

The third oldest of Foreman's 10 children -- five girls and five boys -- Freeda was working as a customer relations clerk for United Parcel Service in Greenville, South Carolina, only a month ago.

She had heard of Laila Ali's entry into boxing. And then Jacqui Frazier-Lyde decided to enter the ring. Ali and Frazier-Lyde are friends. And Foreman and Frazier-Lyde talk on the phone all the time.

``After I spoke to Jacqui about it, I said `I want to get in on this,''' Foreman said. ``That's our love, that's all we talk about. I just wish I would have done it earlier.''

The single mother of a four-year-old, Foreman turned in her notice and quit UPS. She hooked up with promoter Dan Goossen of America Presents and plans to begin training under Goossen's brother Larry in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Her first fight will be on April 1 at the Regent in Las Vegas on a card that features Olympians Chris Byrd and LawrenceClay-Bey.

Foreman has no opponent for her first fight, likely to be in the super middleweight or light heavyweight range. She is 180 centimetres and weighs 81 kgs, but intends to drop to 72 kg by the fight.

With most of the successful women boxers in the lighter weights, though, her future revolves around two specific opponents -- the daughters of her father's famous opponents.