Perhaps the best thing that could happen in boxing in 2006 would be for Floyd Mayweather Jr. to finally capture the public's imagination like other greats of past and present.
Promoter Bob Arum, who recently re-signed Mayweather to a two-year contract, is confident that moment is upon us. It will come, Arum said, when Mayweather squares off with welterweight champion Zab Judah on April 8 at Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.

"Judah is very competitive with him and it will be a really interesting fight. It will be high visibility," Arum said. "And I think it's clear that, unlike the (Arturo) Gatti fight, where Floyd was the B side, he's going to be the A side in this match."

Indeed, Gatti was the beloved fighter going into his fight with Mayweather on June 25 in Atlantic City. Mayweather was seen as the bad guy, the cocky fighter who never has seemed to care much what others think about him.

That, in large part, is why Mayweather never has drawn the crowds other top fighters have, why he has fought just once on pay-per-view despite being one of the finest talents to come along in 30 years.

Mayweather, 28, is 35-0 with 24 knockouts. He is 14-0 in championship fights and has won titles in the super featherweight, lightweight and super lightweight divisions.

"He's really right up there with the great fighters," said Arum, who has promoted boxing for 39 years. "He's up there with Sugar Ray Leonard, with Marvin Hagler, with Alexis Arguello. He's one of the best.

"He has incredibly fast reflexes and is probably the smartest of all the fighters since Muhammad Ali."

Judah-Mayweather is contingent upon Judah defending his World Boxing Council, World Boxing Association and International Boxing Federation belts against Carlos Baldomir on Saturday at Madison Square Garden in New York. Showtime will televise.

Mayweather-Judah would be only for Judah's WBC belt.

Corrales-Castillo III: The first two fights between Diego Corrales and Jose Luis Castillo were held in Las Vegas. The third, which will be a rubber match, is slated for Feb. 4 at Don Haskins Center in El Paso, Texas.




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"We've got so much in Las Vegas, we have to take some of these matches to other places," said Arum, the lead promoter. "I mean, there's a limit to what Vegas can draw, and we don't want all big-time boxing to exclusively come out of Vegas."

Arum, chairman of the board of Top Rank Inc., has several big Las Vegas cards upcoming. The rematch between Erik Morales and Manny Pacquiao will be Jan. 21 at Thomas & Mack Center, Antonio Margarito will defend his World Boxing Organization welterweight belt against Manuel Gomez on Feb. 18 at the Aladdin and then Judah-Mayweather in April.

Taylor-Wright: Negotiations are ongoing for a fight between Jermain Taylor - the WBC, WBA and WBO middleweight champion - and Winky Wright, the top contender for the WBC and WBA.

The respective promoters, Lou DiBella (Taylor) and Gary Shaw (Wright), have sat down and talked, but DiBella said last week he is not optimistic. The money, DiBella said, is just not what it should be for a fight like this, mainly because it will be on HBO, not pay-per-view; therefore, no upside revenue will be available.

Wright would have to settle for the smaller side of a 60-40 split, which means he would get less than $3 million, or a tad more than the $2-plus million he just made for fighting Sam Soliman on Dec. 10.

And Taylor would end up making slightly less than the approximate $4 million he made for his rematch with Bernard Hopkins on Dec. 3.