By Chris Williams: Undefeated welterweight Floyd Mayweather Jr finally came out and pegged Manny Pacquiao as his next fight after his September 17th fight against WBC welterweight champion Victor Ortiz. At the press conference today, Mayweather said “Manny Pacquiao, yes, you’re next,” according to fighthype.com.

This was already predicted by many boxing fans as soon as Mayweather’s fight against the southpaw Ortiz was announced because Ortiz is considered by many to be one of the toughest fighters in the world and he’s also a southpaw like Pacquiao.

This doesn’t mean that a Mayweather-Pacquiao fight is a done deal, though, because Mayweather still needs to beat Ortiz and Pacquiao needs to defeat Juan Manuel Marquez in November. A loss for either Mayweather or Pacquiao will almost surely destroy the chances of the two fighters finally getting in the ring.

Also there are other issues that could ruin a Mayweather vs. Pacquiao fight staring with the random blood tests that Mayweather will wants. And if Pacquiao’s team come up with some kind of punitive weight penalty like the $10 million per pound overweight penalty that they were looking to put in the contract the last time Mayweather tried to negotiate a fight with Pacquiao that could be a no-go. That kind of thing only leads to fights not getting made by setting up obstructions in order to gain an advantage.

If Pacquiao isn’t okay with Mayweather possibly being a few pounders heavier than he might want to reconsider fighting him and sticking with the tried and true Top Rank stable. I’m sure Bob Arum would love to see Pacquiao fight Miguel Cotto again, and who knows?

Maybe Pacquiao could go around the table again and fight Antonio Margarito and Joshua Clottey, two other Top Rank stable fighters again. But if they’re serious about wanting to make Mayweather-Pacquiao, they need to meet the guy half way and not make Mayweather have to grovel to get a fight. That won’t work for a big cash cow like Mayweather. You got the come the bargaining table with some reasonable ideas for what you want.