LAS VEGAS - Floyd Mayweather Jr. is becoming a polished corporate athlete, landing sponsorship deals and enjoying the millionaire life. He woos the media and still trains with the ferocity that's arguably made him the world's best pound-for-pound fighter. Zab Judah often sees himself as a strong-but-silent, hard-scrabble boxer who lives for big moments but disdains the niceties of big business. Their matchup for the IBF welterweight title Saturday night should be a treat for fight fans, a strength-on-strength battle of smarts and quickness. They're also popular black athletes in a sport with waning popularity, and their clever promoters have seized upon that bit of their identity to sell an already intriguing matchup. When industry heavyweights Bob Arum and Don King joined forces for just the fourth time on a big fight since 1975 to sell Mayweather-Judah, they devised a plan to market their black stars to black audiences to what Arum believes is an unprecedented degree. "We believed (similar) fights had been wrongly marketed, to some extent," Arum said during a press conference most notable for King's bluster and a brief verbal exchange between the fighters while posing for photos. "Urban audiences, African-American audiences weren't getting the attention they deserved." King's partnership with Arum is far more unlikely than the matchup of Mayweather and Judah, former sparring partners whose growing distaste led to the fight being dubbed "Sworn Enemies." That's King and Arum in a nutshell, but such feelings can be fleeting when there's serious money to be made, even for 74-year-olds with decades of grudges. "We're here to make sure people of all colors realize that boxing is in the ascendancy, and these two fighters are driving the rocket," King said after shaking hands with Arum. These two senior citizens think they understand the cultural ethos surrounding hip-hop music and fashion, and they know this generation doesn't have the same visceral connection to boxing as its forebears. Arum and King believe it can be rebuilt around charismatic black champions such as Mayweather, Judah, Sugar Shane Mosley and Antonio Tarver. When King is asked about hip-hop's place in boxing, he embarks on a soliloquy that only he could write, declaring himself "the godfather of hip-hop ... just as James Brown is the Godfather of Soul" and throwing in references to George Bernard Shaw, Jay-Z, "P-Daddy" and a song from "The Sound of Music." Said King: "This is a fight of an urban nature, and every black man knows that's when our stars shine the brightest." Though Mayweather is widely considered the sport's best pound-for-pound fighter, he isn't its biggest draw, with episodes of bad behavior and a lack of epic opposition slowing his rise. Arum, whose Top Rank Inc. promotes Mayweather, believes this fight can be the start of Pretty Boy's ascension to eminence. And to make it happen, Arum and King  who promotes Judah, the superbly talented IBF champion coming off an embarrassing loss to Carlos Baldomir  heavily focused their marketing effort on black audiences in radio, television and publications, borrowing a strategy from similar promotions for Latino fighters. Dozens of black stars of sports and entertainment will be at ringside, and Arum believes black audiences will snatch up the pay-per-view telecast. Mayweather has been much more willing to play his role in the weeks leading up to the fight, promoting extensively while Judah focused on training. While the loquacious Mayweather charmed the room and praised his opponent, Judah spoke briefly but mostly glowered silently behind sunglasses and a hood. "(Judah) is from Brooklyn. He has that ghetto mentality, and he tries to intimidate fighters," said DeMarcus "Chop Chop" Corley, who lost to both Mayweather and Judah earlier in his career, but sparred with Mayweather in preparation for this fight. "He could take it to you in the ring or in the street, and that's what fans like."-AP
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