By Chris Williams: Now that Floyd Mayweather Jr. is officially off the table for Manny Pacquiao’s next fight in early 2012 due to Mayweather’s 90 incarceration sentence, Pacquiao and his promoter Bob Arum are going to have to sit down in January to pick out just who will be the next fight for the Filipino star.

While it may seem like a big mystery about who will be the lucky one to get the fight it’s really not going to be any real shock to most boxing experts. Arum will likely present the following three fighters to Pacquiao for him to select – with Arum’s valuable feedback – one of these guys:

1. Miguel Cotto – this will likely be the one chosen for Pacquiao to fight because he’s a Top Rank fighter and this will be an in house Top Rank fight, the kind that Arum likes to set up. He wants to keep Cotto with Top Rank and obviously setting him up immediately with a rematch with Pacquiao will help Arum achieve that goal. Cotto already lost to Pacquiao two years ago in a one-sided fight that ended with a 12th round TKO win for Pacquiao. However, Cotto has won his last three fights against arguably worn and/or injured fighters Yuri Foreman, Ricardo Mayorga and Antonio Margarito. Cotto has a large fan base and a pay per view fight between him and Pacquiao will likely do well despite their first fight being noncompetitive. Enough boxing fans will have forgotten about that fight for Arum to do well with this match-up. Will it be a good fight? Maybe. Cotto will likely try to move and punch like he did against Margarito in his recent win against him. However, Cotto will fade with the pressure that Pacquiao puts on him and will likely fall apart by the 9th or 10th rounds. At best, I can see Cotto making it 11 rounds if he merely fights to survive like he did the last time he fought Pacquiao. He won;’t win the fight but he’ll last until deep into the fight with his movement.

2. Juan Manuel Marquez He clearly beat Pacquiao in their recent fight last month but found himself losing yet another questionable decision that went against what the boxing world felt happened in the fight. Marquez wants more money for the rematch and he also doesn’t want the fight to take place in Las Vegas, as that’s where he’s fought Pacquiao before and not been given decisions despite looking like the better fighter in all three fights. With those demands, coupled with the fact that he’s too dangerous, it’s likely that Marquez will be dismissed as an opponent for Pacquiao. Doesn’t matter that it would really be in Pacquiao’s best interest to fight Marquez again due to the entire boxing world overwhelmingly seeing Marquez as the winner. Arum will still likely skip the rematch and go in a different direction.

3. Timothy Bradley – he was recently signed by Top Rank with the hope of matching him against Pacquiao, as Arum is running out of Top Rank fighters for Pacquiao to fight. With the signing of the unbeaten Bradley (28-0, 12 KO’s), it gives Arum another option for Pacquiao. However, Bradley still needs more visibility to attract interest before Arum puts him in with Pacquiao for what could be a cash out fight. Arum did Bradley no favors by matching him against 40-year-old Joel Casamayor on the undercard of Pacquiao’s last fight in November. Bradley looked horrible against a horrible opponent and the fight actually seemed to work in reverse for Arum. Instead of boxing fans craving a Pacquiao-Bradley fight, they were largely disgusted by he thought of the fight taking place. Bradley won’t get the fight with Pacquiao because he doesn’t have a fan base and no one would give him a chance to win.