By Chris Williams: Top Rank has made an offer to WBA/WBO lightweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez to fight their number #1 fighter Manny Pacquiao for his World Boxing Organization (WBO) welterweight title in October.

The move appears, which comes before Pacquiao’s important fight next month against Shane Mosley, appears to have been done to lock down Marquez for the Pacquiao bout while at the same time giving Marquez something to make him change his mind about taking a July 30th fight against IBF light welterweight champion Zab Judah. Marquez’s contract with his promoter Golden Boy Promotions has run out and the Judah fight was one of the bouts that Golden Boy were offering the 37-year-old Marquez if he decides to stay with them.

The offer to Marquez covers his guaranteed purse as well as PPV money that he would make for Pacquiao fight, according to Dan Rafael. There will be a rematch clause in the contract just in case Marquez were to beat Pacquiao.

There hasn’t been any word about whether there would be a small catch weight handicap for Marquez, because without a catchweight, this would be a fight that would be very difficult for Marquez to win. Marquez fought Floyd Mayweather Jr. at 143 in 2009, and the added weight slowed Marquez down badly. Given that Pacquiao has been fighting at welterweight for some time now and was able to get Shane Mosley, the WBO champion at the time of their fight, to agree to a catchweight handicap, it seems only fair that Marquez should be able to fight with the same kind of handicap that Pacquiao has had in fights against Cotto, and Antonio Margarito.

If Marquez does accept the fight with Pacquiao then the Judah fight will almost surely be forgotten about. It’s unclear if Marquez agreeing to fight Pacquiao would mean that Marquez would be signing with Top Rank or not. Golden Boy can match whatever offer that Top Rank makes for Marquez.

The offer to Marquez for October means that a fight between Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. won’t be happening in 2011, because this will be the last available date for Pacquiao this years. Perhaps Top Rank wanted to get the Marquez fight out of the way before trying to take on Mayweather.

It’s kind of odd that Bob Arum of Top Rank is locking down Marquez even before Pacquiao’s fight with Mosley has still get to be fought. This reeks of over-confidence because Mosley does have a chance of beating Pacquiao, even it it’s a small one.