SWEETER SCIENCE

The woman on the other end of the phone tried to finish the conversation, but tears got in the way.

“I’ll probably never be able to speak to my father again,” she said, her voice breaking up, because he is so mad at me. But he has his life and now I’m trying to make mine.”

Pause.

“I’m sorry, but I’m trying to fight these tears.”

It was a fight she soon lost, ending the conversation.

Fighting, in fact, is what the conversation was all about. The young woman is trying to fight through the fears and objections of her father, hoping to fulfill her dream of becoming a professional fighter.

Her father’s objections are hard to ignore. He knows what he’s talking about, having done a bit of fighting himself.

He is George Foreman, two-time heavyweight champion of the world. Her name is Freeda Foreman, although at this point, it would be easier if she were Freeda Smith.

Freeda will make her boxing debut, with or without her father’s blessing, Sunday at the Regent Las Vegas hotel against LaQuanda Landers, joining the latest craze in boxing: daughters of former champions following their fathers into the ring.

Besides the 23-year-old Freeda, who gave up a job with a postal service to pursue a boxing career, there are:

* Laila Ali, 22, daughter of three-time heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali. Laila (6-0, six knockouts) gave up her ownership in a Los Angeles nail salon to box. She fights tonight at the Universal Amphitheatre where she will take on 48-year-old Marjorie Jones.

* Jacquelyn Frazier-Lyde, 38, daughter of former heavyweight champion Joe Frazier. Jackie, a mother of three, has begun boxing while continuing to practice law.

* Maria Johansson, 34, daughter of former heavyweight champion Ingemar Johansson. The mother of two, an equestrienne who once worked as a bouncer, she will also begin her boxing career in Sunday’s show at the Regent, going against Karrie Frye.

* Irichelle Duran, 23, daughter of four-time champion Roberto Duran. Her debut, scheduled for earlier this month in England, was postponed because she was running a high fever.

The line of daughters hoping to find the success, fame and riches their fathers did is ever-growing. Women’s boxing has grown immensely in popularity since Christy Martin slugged her way onto the cover of Sports Illustrated.

She was Don King’s fighter. So, of course, King’s archrival, Bob Arum, had to counter with a female boxer of his own. He put his superior promotional skills behind Mia St. John and landed her on the cover of Playboy.

Although the talent level did not rise along with the interest, fans now expect the female novelty act to be part of any major boxing show.

And what better way for a promoter to advertise his novelty act than to use a famous name, such as Ali, Foreman or Frazier.

Several of the fathers have gone along with the fad. Frazier supports his daughter. Johansson is training his daughter and will be in her corner Sunday.

Ali, however, resisted at first.

“I was worried about her getting hurt,” Ali said.

Foreman was even stronger.

“There is no way I will ever watch my daughter fight,” he said. “They could leave a million-dollar check in the front row at my daughter’s fight--and you know how much I love money--and I would not come to pick it up.”

Said Freeda: “It hurts my feelings to hear him talk that way. But there is nothing I can do about it. As passionate as he is against my fighting, that’s how passionate I am for it.”

But that’s not enough, according to her father.

“You can never be a boxer if you are not hungry,” he said. “My daughter has never known anything but nice homes and a good life. What is she doing in boxing?

“I’ve seen the cauliflower ears, the blood up the nose, the knuckles that have nearly disappeared from your hand, the scar tissue. Would I wish that on my daughter? Of course not. I boxed so she could get an education. It would be a shame if she took that education and went into boxing, but it doesn’t make me love her any less.”

That is a big comfort to Freeda, who still sees her father as her guiding light.

She said, “I have a poster of my dad in my room and, at the bottom, it says, ‘Never give up on your dreams.’ This is a dream of mine. All my life, I’ve wanted to be a boxer. I love it, even if I am a woman.

“I never knew what a real punch was until I got into the gym, but when I took my first shot to the chin, a jab, I wondered, ‘Am I in the right place?’ I went home and prayed. I asked myself, ‘Do I really want to be here?’ I decided I do.

“My dad told boxing people to stay away from me. For a while, nobody would help me.”

In February, though, Freeda signed with the America Presents boxing organization. Larry Goossen, brother of Dan Goossen, co-founder of the organization, became her trainer.

“When I first saw her, she had zero talent. Zip,” Larry said. “She had never fought before at the amateur or pro level. The first week, I didn’t think she was going to make it. I had her in tears the first time I worked her out. The first time she sparred, I thought, ‘This is going to be sad.’

“But she has gotten 100% better since February. She has a lot of her dad in her.”

And Freeda is determined to use that natural ability.

“My father created his own destiny,” she said. “Now, it’s my turn. He should be happy for me. I think he’ll come around. And if he does come to my fight, I’ll be enthused. He is my father.”

Ali has come around after staying away from several of his daughter’s fights. He’ll be ringside tonight.

Speaking to a reporter recently about his daughter, Ali began talking in his slow, hushed manner, the result of Parkinson’s syndrome.

But as he talked about Laila, his voice grew more animated, his eyes began to sparkle and his voice rose until he broke out in the poetry that was once a staple of an Ali news conference.

Muhammad’s tribute to Laila:

“She’s rough, she’s tough and she don’t take no stuff.

“She floats like a butterfly, stings like a bee and she’s just as pretty as me.”

Laila is smart enough to know that her father is too tough an act for anyone to follow.

“I will never be as big as my dad,” she said. “I don’t want to be. He is the greatest athlete of all time. I don’t fight like him. I don’t fight at his level.

“Having the name Ali helps, but you can’t just have a name. If that’s all I had, it would have been all over after the first or second fight.”

Laila says she isn’t in the ring because of the influence of her father, simply because she wasn’t around him much as child. She was 8 when Muhammad and Laila’s mother, Veronica, divorced, but the tension in the family had been there much longer.

“I never felt a great longing to see my father,” Laila said. “We are close at heart, but we bang heads a lot. We are both Capricorns. We understand each other.

“I didn’t give a darn about boxing growing up. I didn’t walk around telling people who my dad was. A lot of times, I tried to hide it. It was easier that way.

“No, I did not want to be like my daddy. It would be a nice story to say that I always went to the gym with him and wanted to be like him. But it’s not true.”

So it’s just a coincidence that she became a fighter?

“An amazing coincidence,” she said.

But whether Laila is close to her father or not, he will be close to her tonight, sitting ringside.

That can mean a lot. Just ask Freeda Foreman.

*

For the Ages

Muhammad Ali’s daughter, Laila, fights 48-year-old tonight at the Universal Amphitheatre. D7