By Eric Thomas: World Boxing Association welterweight champion Shane Mosley (46-5, 39 KO’s) is still doggedly going after Manny Pacquiao, and probably wasting his energy and looking desperate in doing so.

It’s almost a joke with many people the way that Mosley is willing to give this or that to Pacquiao such as coming in at an extra low catch weight to please him and is willing to take the much smaller purse split in an effort to make the fight happen but it’s gone past the point of desperation for some people, because Pacquiao clearly isn’t interested in a fight with Mosley.

Pacquiao would get a better fight with Mosley, but that’s besides the point. Bob Arum wants the fight with Miguel Cotto for Pacquiao, and Manny wants the fight as well. Arum sees the Cotto fight as being the bigger money fight for Pacquiao, because of Miguel’s popularity with boxing fans who have become accustomed to seeing him fight on HBO.

However, that doesn’t sit too well with Mosley, 37, who sees himself as being just as popular as Cotto with boxing fans. Although Arum isn’t interested in matching Pacquiao with Mosley, he would like to have Mosley fight Joshua Clottey, another fighter that Arum promotes with Top Rank. Thus far, Mosley hasn’t been all that interested in fighting Clottey for obvious reasons.

Mosley wants the huge money fight with Pacquiao and having to settle for a bout against Clottey would be a big let down for Mosley, because it’s a fight that would make much less money than a fight with Pacquiao, plus Clottey was recently beaten by Cotto in a 12 round split decision on June 13th.

However, Mosley would be more or less doing Clottey and Arum a favor by fighting Clottey rather than getting something that would be helping him in any real way. Just because Mosley were to fight Clottey, it wouldn’t mean that Shane would be in the running for a fight against Pacquiao in the future, because frankly I don’t see that happening.

Pacquiao will be facing Cotto next, another Arum promoted fighter, and after that probably Floyd Mayweather Jr. Mosley, in the meantime, would have to settle for fighting Clottey, which at this point would be like getting sloppy seconds because of Joshua’s loss to Cotto.

It doesn’t matter that Clottey lost by a close margin or that some people felt that he won the fight with Cotto, all that matters is that Clottey lost the bout. And by fighting someone that was just beaten, it doesn’t really further Mosley’s career any.

Facts are facts, Clottey isn’t a very popular fighter and doesn’t have a huge following. Mosley does and hence would be doing Arum a big favor by fighting Clottey and giving him the publicity by fighting him. I imagine that Mosley won’t want to be doing Arum any favors if he’s not going to be getting something out of it like a fight against Pacquiao.

I can see how Mosley would be insulted by the offer of fighting Clottey, because it’s like eating a big juicy steak in front of a starving man, and then deciding to throw a bone to him instead of a regular serving. Mosley may not have a lot of options available to him, because he’s now considered to be the top welterweight in the division after his 9th round stoppage win over Antonio Margarito in January 2009.

However, it’s doubtful that Mosley will settle for a fight with Clottey when he still has options like Paul Williams or possibly Andre Berto.