By Chris Williams: It’s no secret that Manny Pacquiao is running out of interesting opponents for him to fight. With his promoter Bob Arum saying he doesn’t want to put Pacquiao in with bigger fighters, he basically has taken away some great fights that Pacquiao could have had against guys like WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez, Paul Williams and some of the other middleweights. At Junior middleweight, welterweight and light welterweight, the pickings are kind of slim.

There’s Amir Khan, but he’s friends with Pacquiao, so that fight isn’t a possibility. Roach, speaking to 8countnews.com, said he likes light welterweight contender Marcos Maidana (29-2, 27 KO’s) as a future opponent for Pacquiao to fight. Roach considers Maidana as a worthy opponent for Pacquiao, and that’s something that may open some eyes for fans because Maidana isn’t a champion. You would think that Roach would prefer Pacquiao to fight light welterweight champions Devon Alexander or Timothy Bradley if he were speaking of light welterweights.

It looks like Maidana is considered viable due to his exciting fights against Khan, Victor Ortiz and Victor Cayo recently. Maidana has got the power, the chin and the exciting fighting style that would make for an interesting bout with Pacquiao, but he’s pretty slow of hand and foot. With that being said, Maidana would probably do a better job than Antonio Margarito, because Maidana is a lot better at avoiding head shots compared to Margarito and can probably punch harder than him, even though Maidana is smaller by two weight divisions.

Pacquiao doesn’t have a lot of options after the Mosley fight. There’s Andre Berto at welterweight and Floyd Mayweather Jr, but that fight won’t be happening anytime soon. The rest of the welterweights aren’t seasoned nor popular enough to waste time fighting. And at junior middleweight, there’s only Miguel Cotto, who Pacquiao already beat, and a bunch of fighters that have no fanbase. It’s hardly worth fighting them or Cotto.