Blow-by-blow.

She lays down the law in the courtroom and in the boxing ring

It was a Saturday night fight at the Casino Magic Hotel in Biloxi, Mississippi. Jacquelyn Frazier-Lyde (nicknamed Sister Smoke by the legendary Muhammad Ali) is on the card to box in the last match. When it's Jacqui's turn to fight, an entourage escorts her to ringside.

She steps into the ring to rumble, and while continuing to warm up by shuffling her feet and throwing mock jabs, starts to intimidate her opponent with a stare-down.

The bell rings, Jacqui comes out battling--and lands consecutive blows to her opponent's face. In just one minute and six seconds in the first round, it's over. Jacqui wins by a knockout.

Not bad for a woman who had her first professional boxing match in February last year. But Jacqui is not your ordinary female boxer. She's a 39-year-old attorney, wife, and mother of three who inherited her fighting spirit from her father, former world heavyweight champion "Smoking'" Joe Frazier, and finds boxing a rewarding outlet, stacked up against the fight she's waged outside the ring.

The real fight has been representing her dad over the past 10 years in an $84 million dispute over one of his real estate investments, 140 acres of land, which she is pursuing. "These boxing matches are nothing compared to 14 of the biggest Philadelphia law firms that I'm dealing with," says Jacqui, out of her law firm, Frazier-Lyde & Associates L.L.C. in Philadelphia.

But the civil litigator and criminal trial attorney says her big mouth initiated her into prizefighting. A reporter asked her what she thought of Muhammad Ali's daughter Laila Ali's boxing skills. "And I made the comment, from just looking at her. I'd kick her butt," says Jacqui. "The remark was all over the newspapers, and I went right into training."

In fact, she hopes to fight Laila, in the spirit of good sportsmanship, in the fall. And she plans to use the notoriety to boost boxing as a sport.

With help from some of the "best trainers in Philadelphia," along with her dad and brother Rev. Marvis Frazier, who operate Joe Frazier's Gym, a premier facility for training boxers in Philadelphia, Jacqui's pro boxing record is 6-0 with six knockouts.

For Jacqui, the biggest benefits from boxing were losing weight and just feeling good again. A year ago, she weighed 210 pounds. Today, she weighs in at 164 pounds, and finds that the workout relieves stress. According to Jacqui, the training "helps you to focus on yourself, and fine-tunes your thinking and the way you breathe."

Getting started

You don't have to jump into the ring to get the benefits of a boxing workout:

* TAKE A COURSE. Many fitness facilities, such as Phenomenal Fitness (312-360-0303) in Chicago, offer boxing and kickboxing classes using heavy bag, double-end bag, and speed bag training for physical conditioning. They also offer cardio kickboxing and high-powered cardio classes that use boxing and aerobics to burn fat.

* WATCH VIDEOS. Try these: Crunch Tae Boxing; Workouts: Kickology & Tae Boxing Jam starring Billy Blanks; Dawei Cardio Kickboxing; Power Kicks by Aaron Lankford; One, the Next Level in Cardio Kickboxing; and Cardio Athletic Kickbox.

* READ UP. Check out The Boxing Record Book (published by Fight Fax Inc., $64), a reference guide that lists the who's who of boxing from promoters to managers. It also rates fighters, lists the records of fighters, and provides contact information for premier world boxing organizations. You can obtain a copy by calling 856-228-3909.