Bob Arum, I'm pretty sure, is still rich.

Luxury car, million-dollar home, a vacation on the French Riviera, tickets to the buffet at Wynn Las Vegas -- I'm certain Arum can afford them all and still have a little left over to tip the mailman at the holidays.

You've heard of the Midas touch, but how about the Arum touch? Wouldn't you like to get rich and have dinner with Steve Wynn and be on a first-name basis with Sen. Harry Reid just by talking a couple of guys into beating each other up?

As far as I know, Arum himself hasn't taken one to the kisser yet, though I bet Oscar De La Hoya goes to bed at night praying for one chance.

Arum got rich by doing this, so who am I to tell him he's wasting his time promoting the April 8 welterweight fight between Zab Judah and Floyd Mayweather Jr.?

But he's wasting his time, and in the process harming the integrity of a sport that has precious little of it.

These days, Mayweather is to boxing what a Stradivarius is to violins. Judah is, well, a pedestrian fighter who's won world titles in two divisions while being long on style and short on substance.

De La Hoya could draw more fans to watch him follow his Teacup Yorkshire Terrier in the park with a pooper scooper than Judah does for his most important bout.

Judah loves to boast of his Brooklyn heritage, but he isn't exactly a hot ticket in his hometown. When he feebly attempted to defend the undisputed welterweight title against Carlos Baldomir on Jan. 7 in New York, he drew only 4,735 fans, comps included. Whatever Judah is selling, even his homies aren't buying.

All Judah had to do was beat Baldomir to guarantee himself a $3 million payday, by far the largest of his career, for a crack at Mayweather.

It's not like Judah was in tough. Baldomir had nine losses and six draws going into their fight and was such a prohibitive underdog that his promoters, the Sycuan Indian tribe, failed to pay the sanctioning fees for the IBF and WBA championships. Had the folks at Sycuan, who have plenty of money, had even the remotest belief that their guy could win, they would have gleefully paid the fees.

Judah failed to make the weight on his first attempt, a clear sign of impending trouble, and was then outworked, almost knocked out and cleanly beaten.

Judah had the temerity to blame Don King afterward, saying the promoter made him do too many interviews leading up to the fight. (Of course, had Judah done fewer interviews, there probably would have been a bigger turnout, but that's another story.)

Judah's loss threw a crimp into Arum's plans. Arum re-signed Mayweather to a promotional agreement late last year knowing Mayweather would cost more per fight than virtually any other active boxer. Arum also knew the pool of legitimate Mayweather opponents is shallow.

Now, he's stuck trying to promote a Mayweather-Judah fight that shouldn't be happening, has no significance and few want to see.

HBO rejected Baldomir out of hand. Antonio Margarito has a fight Feb. 18 and wouldn't be available in time for an April 8 show. Ricky Hatton declined the fight until later in the year.

Miguel Cotto already had an opponent for a March fight. There wasn't enough money to make a Winky Wright fight. Diego Corrales and Jose Luis Castillo were committed to fighting each other.

So Arum and King agreed to match Mayweather and Judah anyway.

It's hard to forget King's bellyaching about how Arum was trying "to make the loser the winner" as they were negotiating in 2000 a De La Hoya-Felix Trinidad rematch.

Can you spell hypocrite?

This is part of a disturbing trend in boxing, in which fighters win high-profile bouts and then get set aside.

It happened when Zahir Raheem beat Erik Morales in September, then sat on the sidelines as Morales fought Manny Pacquiao last week.

And it may happen again in the spring. Sam Soliman, who lost to Wright in December, might get the first crack at middleweight champion Jermain Taylor.

Arum is undaunted. He says Wynn Las Vegas executives queried customers and found they were still interested in seeing the Judah fight.

Perhaps. But doesn't it make you wonder where they've been for Judah's first 37 fights?

Kevin Iole's boxing column is published Saturday. Reach him at 396-4428 or at kiole@reviewjournal.com.