By Chris Williams: The situation might getting a little dire for Manny Pacquiao with him getting beaten in his last fight agaisnt Tim Bradley. If Pacquiao doesn’t step up and face Floyd Mayweather Jr. now he may regret it because that big cash that he could have received for the Mayweather bout won’t be there if Pacquiao gets another loss.

Okay, so here’s the deal: Pacquiao wait around until the Mayweather fight happens next year hopefully or Pacquiao can move forward and take on one of three dangerous opponents selected for him by promoter Bob Arum. The bad thing about waiting for a Mayweather fight is that might not happen unless Pacquiao is willing to agree to all the things that Mayweather asks for.

I’m sure Mayweather can sense it already that Pacquiao really wants the fight with him, and he also no doubt has observed how poor Pacquiao looked in his loss to Tim Bradley last June. Mayweather is a great negotiator and and he’d be negotiating from a position of strength in with Pacquiao. Mayweather’s unbeaten, whereas Pacquiao just lost for the 4th time in his career. Mayweather’s last fight against Miguel Cotto drew 1.5 million PPV buys, whereas Pacquiao’s last fight against Tim Bradley drew around 700,000 buys.

In hindsight, Pacquiao should have said no to the idea of fighting Bradley, because that bout was destined to do less than spectacular PPV numbers. I know Arum went and signed Bradley up to his Top Rank stable and all, but that doesn’t mean that Pacquiao had to agree to fight him. Pacquiao should have known that a fight against Bradley would result in lower PPV numbers than he was used to getting in the past. The lower numbers, in turn, will give Mayweather an excuse not to give Pacquiao the 50-50 purse split that he’s been asking for. So, Pacquiao not only lost to Bradley, but their fight failed to bring in big numbers. The fight is done now, and Pacquiao can’t do anything about it now that it’s over. It was a bad decision to take the fight and now it could hurt him in trying to put together a fight with Mayweather.

Pacquiao might have to settle for whatever Mayweather is willing to give him. Look at the bright side of things. Pacquiao will still end up making a lot more money than he would by fighting yet another one of Arum’s Top Rank stable fighters. Pacquiao will still come out ahead of the game, and if he actually beats Mayweather, then he’ll be right back at the top. This time I hope Pacquiao turns down fights against non-PPV worthy fighters and focuses only on the big names.