By Eric Thomas: World Boxing Association welterweight champion Shane Mosley (46-5, 39 KO’s) appears to be all but left in the dust now that Manny Pacquiao is eyeing a bout against WBO welterweight champion Miguel Cotto in November. Mosley, 37, had been hoping to get a shot against Pacquiao and had even gone so far as to agree to come in at a catch weight against Pacquiao, a move that would have left Mosley at a handicap because he has problems just getting down to the 147 pound welterweight limit.

Mosley will now have to cool his heels and either wait to see what happens with the Cotto-Pacquiao or the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Juan Manuel Marquez bout. However, Mosley might be better served to try and keep busy defending his WBA title against someone like Zab Judah.

Unfortunately for Mosley, the WBA is one of the weakest in the welterweight division and there’s not a whole lot of quality opponents there other than Judah and Antonio Margarito, the latter of which has been suspended from boxing for a year.

Judah would be a good fight to stay busy with. Judah, 31, lost to Joshua Clottey by a 9th round technical decision in August 2008, and has since fought Ernest Johnson, beating him by a 10 round decision. Judah would give Mosley a named opponent for the short term.

It wouldn’t, though, give Mosley a huge name that he’s looking for because Judah has been beaten too many times in the past three years, losing four times since 2006. However, Judah still has his fast hands and can cause a fighter like Mosley problems if Judah can stay in the fight for the full duration.

Beyond Judah, there’s not a whole lot of reasons for Mosley to hold onto the WBA title, because he’d end up having to defend his title at some point against the likes of Nelson Linares, Rafal Jackiewicz, Hector Saldivia, Saul Alvarez, Yuri Nuzhnenko, Vitaly Demyanenko and Mike Jones. Those are just the top 10 fighters, the bottom part of the WBC is filled with a lot of unknown opponents.