Sister Smoke and Smokin' Joe put out the fire

It won't come to blows between former heavyweight champion Joe Frazier and his lawyer daughter - a heavyweight champion in her own right.

Lawyers for "Smokin' Joe" yesterday dropped a lawsuit filed April 4 in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court against his daughter, Jacquelyn "Sister Smoke" Frazier-Lyde, seeking the return of any financial records, business filings, archives, films, photographs, memorabilia, and other documents pertaining to his business endorsements and contracts. Frazier's advisers said he could be missing out on royalties and other financial remunerations.

The suit said Frazier-Lyde, her father's former lawyer, had failed to return the documents, would not say where they are stored, and refused a March 2 certified letter demanding their return.

Less than an hour before the lawsuit was dropped, Frazier-Lyde, 45, a candidate for a Municipal Court judgeship, held a news conference at a North Philadelphia boxing hall to downplay the suit.

"As recently as this morning, we have been in contact with Frazier's attorney, and I feel certain that before next Tuesday, we'll have this matter cleared up," Bill Dixson, Frazier-Lyde's lawyer, said at the news conference, held at the legendary Blue Horizon. "We categorically deny any of the allegations in the suit."

Dixson said the files never left Smokin' Joe's Gym in North Philadelphia. In a verbal agreement reached yesterday between the two sides, Frazier-Lyde said she will help her father locate the material, according to Frazier's lawyer, Michael P. Kelly.

Frazier-Lyde, a Villanova University School of Law graduate, served as her father's attorney and business adviser from 1989 to 2004, according to the lawsuit.

A mother of three, Frazier-Lyde took up boxing in 2000 at age 38 and ultimately won three world titles.

She declined yesterday to comment directly about the lawsuit but said she'd spoken with her father yesterday morning as the two sides tried to come to an agreement.

"I talked to my father today, and he asked me how I was doing, and I told him I love him," Frazier-Lyde said. "Then the phone connection cut out."

Frazier, 63, who is in Toronto appearing at a festival, has apparently fallen on hard financial times and is seeking the return of the paperwork so he can pursue other possible lawsuits going after people who may have defrauded the former world champion, according to his lawyer.

"I wouldn't want to harass her, my daughter," Frazier told the Associated Press in a telephone interview on Tuesday. "I brought her here in this world and gave her the best of everything. I love her."

But Kelly said the pugilist is ready to fight again, if necessary, over the papers.

"We're giving her a chance to live up to her word. If we're not fully satisfied, I'll be right back, quicker than a Joe Frazier left hook."