Pound for pound king and current WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao takes on former three weight champion Shane Mosley on May 7th riding a thirteen fight winning streak, and as such is the most in demand fighter in the world.
Paradoxically though despite the fact that he is routinely called out by just about every victorious fighter between lightweight and middleweight, he finds himself without an obvious next opponent after Mosley.
Should Pacquiao beat Mosley comfortably as expected, or perhaps even stop him, then the obvious choice would be for him to fight Floyd Mayweather, the last man to beat Mosley.
If nothing else, Pacquiao beating Mosley will mean he has equaled the sum total of Mayweather’s achievements for the past year and removes all doubt as to which should be topping pound for pound lists right now.
Between allegedly demanding $100 million to fight Pacquiao, his regular court dates and the fact that he doesn’t really seem that keen on fighting again at the moment, a fight with Floyd Mayweather is more or less off the table.
That isn’t to say that there won’t be more negotiations between the two sides at some point, but as far as Pacquiao’s next opponent goes, Mayweather as usual should be considered a rank outsider.
Juan Manuel Marquez has been the on and off favorite as Pacquiao’s next opponent since before the Mosley fight was announced, and a few weeks ago was tipped to be leaving Golden Boy for Top Rank, securing his much sought after third with with Pacquiao in the process.
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Since then Golden Boy appear to have pulled out all the stops in attempting to keep Marquez. Talk of fights with Zab Judah, Robert Guerrero or Michael Katsidis and presumably a sizable pay raise as well have all been floated around, as has the fact that Marquez now seems to be receptive to a new GBP deal rather than chasing Pacquiao.
For the first time Marquez’s ability to secure the trilogy he has wanted for so long is in his own hands.
Now that he has that chance though Marquez apparently isn’t so sure he really wants it anymore, and is perhaps aware of the fact that as Pacquiao is fighting comfortably at welterweight these days, the size difference between the pair might make for a one sided fight.
