By Jim Dower: WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao will be fighting on June 9th or 16th, according to fightnews.com. Promoter Bob Arum told writer Nick Giongco of fightnews that Pacquiao will be back in action against one of four possible opponents in the summer date. It won’t be Floyd Mayweather Jr., however, as he’ll be serving his 90-day jail term at that time.

Instead, Arum wants to match Pacquiao up with one of the following fighters: Timothy Bradley, Lamont Peterson, Juan Manuel Marquez or Miguel Cotto.

The choice is anyone’s guess. Arum is going to give Pacquiao his opinion about who he likes, and so will Pacquiao’s trusted advisor Michael Koncz. Freddie Roach reportedly said he doesn’t care who Pacquiao fights among the four. He likes all of them, although he did previously say he likes the idea of Pacquiao fighting Peterson.

Arum believes Pacquiao needed more six months for his cut to heal above his right eye, and that’s one of the biggest reasons why Arum chose not to let Pacquiao fight Mayweather on May 5th. Arum wanted to fight in a bigger arena than the one that Mayweather had already set aside for the May 5th fight, the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. When Mayweather and Pacquiao do eventually fight, Arum prefers that they fight in an arena that will hold at least 40,000 fans. Those are fairly conservative numbers, as a Mayweather-Pacquiao fight would likely draw even more if they were to stage it in a big stadium in the U.S like the Cowboy stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Arum would like to get this fight out of the way for Pacquiao and then barring any additional cuts, he wants to put Pacquiao in with Mayweather in November if the two fighters can successfully negotiate the fight. That’s a big if because the two sides could end up far apart depending on how well they do in their next fights. Pacquiao can’t afford another lackluster performance like his last fight against Juan Manuel Marquez if he wants to have equal power in the bargaining room for a fight against Mayweather.