RING No. 1-rated pound-for-pound fighter Manny Pacquiao will select as his next opponent either WBA junior middleweight beltholder Miguel Cotto, WBA/WBO lightweight titleholder Juan Manuel Marquez, IBF/WBA junior welterweight beltwinner Lamont Peterson or Peterson’s WBO division counterpart Tim Bradley.
The selection process will begin on or after January 10, Pacquiao’s promoter, Bob Arum, and his advisor, Michael Koncz., both told RingTV.com on Monday.
The 33-year-old Pacquiao (54-3-2, 38 knockouts) is coming off of his 15th straight win, November’s disputed majority decision over the 38-year-old Marquez (53-6-1, 39 KOs), whom he had battled through a draw and a split-decision victory in two prior meetings.
A southpaw whose run includes nine knockouts, Pacquiao also has vanquished the 31-year-old Cotto (37-2, 30 KOs), whom he dethroned by 12th-round stoppage in November of 2009 for his current WBO welterweight belt.
The 28-year-old Bradley (28-0, 12 KOs) owns a unanimous decision victory over the 27-year-old Peterson (30-1-1, 15 KOs), against whom he successfully defended his WBO crown in December of 2009.
Since being dropped in the third round of his loss to Bradley, Peterson is 3-0-1 with two knockouts, and is coming off of last month’s split-decision victory that dethroned Amir Khan for his current titles.
“I’m going to the Philippines on January 8, and I should be there on January 10. I’m going to shortly, thereafter, meet with Manny,” said Arum, who also promotes Bradley and Cotto. “And we’re going to be offering Manny four potential opponents — Cotto, Marquez, Bradley and Peterson.”
After losing to Pacquiao, Cotto rose into the junior middleweight ranks, where his ninth-round knockout — his first of three straight stoppage victories — dethroned Yuri Foreman for his present WBA belt in June of last year.
