By Dan Rafael
ESPN.com
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For months, Zab Judah has done nothing but slam pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather Jr. in anticipation of their "Sworn Enemies" welterweight showdown.
AP Photo/Shiho Fukada
Mayweather (left) wants badly to "shut up" Judah on April 8.
Even coming off a humiliating title loss to unheralded Carlos Baldomir in January, the talkative Judah continued his braggadocious, in-your-face ways.
But now that the April 8 fight (HBO PPV) in Las Vegas is growing closer by the hour, it seems as though Judah (34-3, 25 KOs) suddenly has lost his stomach for verbal warfare, going silent at crunch time.
There was a time when you couldn't get Judah to shut up about what he would do to Mayweather. Now, you can't even find him.
It seems as though Mayweather already has won the psychological war.
Instead of facing the press corps on a long-scheduled national conference call this week to discuss the heavily hyped fight, Judah was a no-show.
Instead, he sent his father/trainer Yoel Judah, promoter Don King and publicist Alan Hopper to talk for him.
FIGHT CARD
HBO PPV (Saturday, 9 ET)
Thomas & Mack Center, Las Vegas
• Welterweights: Floyd Mayweather Jr. (35-0, 24 KOs) vs. Zab Judah (34-3, 25 KOs), 12 rounds
• Flyweights: Jorge Arce (43-3-1, 33 KOs) vs. Rosendo Alvarez (37-2-2, 24 KOs), 12 rounds, for Arce's interim title
• Lightweights: Juan Diaz (28-0, 14 KOs) vs. Jose Cotto (27-0, 19 KOs), 12 rounds, for Diaz's title
• Junior welterweights: Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (24-0-1, 18 KOs) vs. TBA, 6 rounds
Their excuse for Judah's refusal to participate in the promotion was that he was training and trying to remain focused on the fight.
"No, he's training right now," Yoel Judah said when asked whether Judah would answer questions. "He's focused now, you know what I'm saying."
Over and over, Yoel parroted the party line.
"No disrespect to nobody, no reporter, or commentator, or matchmaker, or nobody," he said. "We're just not talking. He's focused. He's training. And, we're going to do what we've got to do in the ring come April 8."
Added King, "The guy is mad, I guess. He don't want to talk. He's so upset and he's so focused that he's going to do what he's got to do. And, some of the reporters should take this as a hint. A word to the wise -- Zab is going after Floyd with a relentless dedication and commitment to destroy him."
Mayweather (35-0, 24 KOs), meanwhile, couldn't appear more relaxed. In his second major pay-per-view fight, he is becoming a seasoned veteran of the intensity of the process.
He said during his own conference call that he loved the media and was available for all interview requests. Then he even took the unusual step of inviting the media personnel -- and their families! -- to watch him train any time he was at the Top Rank Gym in Las Vegas.
He ripped Judah for ducking the media and not doing his part to promote a fight in which both boxers can earn money on top of their base purses depending on how well the pay-per-view sells.
"It's not cool that his father had to get on the phone with you guys," Mayweather said. "If talking to the media on a speakerphone from a couch throws you out of your focus, you'll never get focused.
"He don't understand business. He's gotta learn. It takes two. I sold this fight. This guy hasn't cooperated from the beginning."
Mayweather didn't buy Judah's "training and focus" reasons for suddenly going silent.
"You can't lose focus talking on speakerphone for a half hour," Mayweather said in one of his many digs at Judah. "I'm going to do this call and then go right to the gym. I told everybody I will shut Zab Judah up. I'm just surprised it happened this early. Every night, I know he can't sleep. He's tossing and turning. He knows he is fighting a better fighter than Baldomir and a tougher fighter than [former junior welterweight champ] Kostya Tszyu," who knocked Judah out in two rounds in 2001.
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