By Chris Williams: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is very interested in matching his fighter Manny Pacquiao (54-4-2, 38 KO’s) against either Miguel Cotto (37-3, 30 KO’s) or Juan Manuel Marquez (54-6-1, 39 KO’s) in rematches.

Although boxing fans have already seen Pacquiao fight and beat both guys before, Arum likes the idea of putting Pacquiao back in with both of them because of the high interest that the fights would bring.

Arum told ESPN “Cotto brings a huge fan base from Puerto Rico…We could do a Cotto rematch, assuming we could come to an understanding on the weight…I think Manny would be willing to do it at 150 [catchweight].”

So there it is. Arum looks to be revealing his hand in who he wants Pacquiao to fight.

Pacquiao already had a chance to fight a rematch against Cotto earlier this year, but wouldn’t agree to fight Cotto at a catch weight of 150 lbs. Of course, Cotto wasn’t going to drain himself to go all the way down to 147 to accommodate Pacquiao after having already done him a favor by fighting the Filipino at a catchweight of 145 pounds in 2009 when Cotto was the WBO welterweight champion. Cotto was the one that had to sacrifice for that catchweight, so it’s understandable that he wouldn’t want to have to make second sacrifice by boiling down all the way to 147.

Arum has got his work cut out for him if he’s going to try and convince Pacquiao to move up in weight slightly to make the fight with Cotto. I don’t think he’ll do it. Cotto at 150 pounds is a much more dangerous fighter than he was when he fought a faster Pacquiao at a catchweight handicap of 145 lbs three years ago. Pacquiao has slowed down since then and he’s a lot more vulnerable now, as we saw in his loss to Bradley.

Tim Bradley (29-0, 12 KO’s), who just beat Pacquiao last June, remains an option for Pacquiao but one can sense that he’s not someone that Arum is particularly excited about putting back in there with his #1 money fighter Pacquiao. It’s understandable from the money standpoint because Bradley won’t bring in the same kind of cash that Marquez and Cotto would in fights against Pacquiao, but you have to wonder if Arum is worried that Bradley may have Pacquiao’s number and could bring him down with his movement.

Pacquiao already lost to Bradley once, but a second loss would likely hurt Pacquiao in terms of future earnings. It might be too risky for Arum to put his cash cow Pacquiao back in with Bradley at this point.