By Chris Williams: If Bob Arum was hoping to use Miguel Cotto to bring Juan Manuel Marquez down in his asking price for a December fight against his cash cow Manny Pacquiao, well he can’t do it anymore because Cotto is now officially out of the Pacquiao lottery with his announcement today that he’ll be fighting for the WBA junior middleweight title against champion Austin Trout on December 1st at Madison Square Garden in New York, New York.

This leaves only Marquez and Tim Bradley for Pacquiao – and Arum – to choose from for their next fight.

It’s pretty much academic at this point that Marquez is going be the guy for Pacquiao. They might as well announce the fight already because it’s been stripped of all suspense now that Cotto has showed his cards. Arum doesn’t have any bargaining room now, unless he wants to go with a smaller payday for Pacquiao against Bradley and watch him get beat again now that Bradley has two good feet working for him.

Believe me, Arum isn’t about to put his money fighter back in with Bradley and risk having Bradley box circles around the aging Pacquiao to further expose his aging legs and lack of ability to cut off the ring. It’s going to be 39-year-old Marquez all the way. He wouldn’t have to be that way if Arum would just bring in some new blood, preferably not one of his old Top Rank stable fighters that have been hanging around for ages.

If Arum just brought in someone new outside of the stable we could have something different instead of seeing Marquez trotted out every once in a while for predictable fights and outcomes. We all pretty much know that Marquez will out-box Pacquiao, make him look bad, and still lose the fight much to the disappointment to boxing fans.

It’s like bad theater where you know the outcome ahead of time but you still pay to watch. Would be be willing to pay $49.99 to see Pacquiao fight Marquez for a fourth time and watch Pacquiao get another controversial decision? I’m betting the undercard will be horrible, loading with mismatches or dull fights that you hardly care about.