By Dave Lahr: Earlier this week, Shane Mosley (46-5, 39 KO’s) made it clear that he was tired of waiting for Manny Pacquiao to fight him and was telling Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer that he moving on, giving up on a fight with the Filipino star, who is considered to be the pound-for-pound number #1 fighter in boxing by segment of the community.

According to Dan Rafael, Mosley said to Schaefer “This guy [Pacquiao] is obviously scared of me, so let’s move on,” meaning that Mosley will now start looking at other opponents like Paul Williams, Kermit Cintron, Zab Judah and Andre Berto. Mosley was hoping that Pacquiao and his promoter Bob Arum might look his way after Mosley destroyed Antonio Margarito in a 9th round stoppage in January.

However, Mosley, 37, may have made a huge mistake of looking a little too good in beating Margarito and in the process of winning the fight, he could have scared off both Pacquiao and Arum while doing it. Pacquiao has looked good in winning his last two fights against Oscar De La Hoya and Ricky Hatton, but those wins pale in comparison to Mosley’s one-sided beating of Margarito, a fighter who would have likely wiped the deck with either De La Hoya or Hatton.

Mosley doggedly went after Pacquiao for a solid two months, even getting help from other Golden Boy Promotions employees to assist in trying to get Pacquiao to agree to a fight. However, not matter what Mosley was willing to do, Pacquiao and Arum showed zero interest in the fight.

While Mosley is considered to be the best fighter in the welterweight division by many people because of his win over Margarito, Pacquiao and his fans point out that Mosley has been beaten not too long ago by Cotto in a narrow 12-round decision in November 2007.

For this reason, they feel that Cotto should be the one that deserves a fight with Pacquiao. They tend to dismiss the win that Margarito has over Cotto last year in July 2008 in which Margarito almost ripped off Cotto’s face in the process of forcing him to submit in the 11th round.

Cotto hasn’t looked like the same fighter since then, which is why people wonder about Pacquiao’s interest in fighting Cotto. With Pacquiao not interested in a fight with Mosley, Shane has to look at some different alternatives. Mosley will be turning 38 in September and can ill afford to sit idle for much longer. He has to find a suitable opponent.

Pacquiao’s fans feel that Mosley is dodging Paul Williams, who is kind of a hybrid welterweight that fights in a number of divisions all at once. That would be a tough fight for Mosley because of his history of doing poorly against taller fighters like Vernon Forrest and Winky Wright. However, it’s probably he biggest one out there for Mosley in terms of making money and getting attention from boxing fans.

Williams, 27, has been interested in fighting Mosley for quite some time and would jump at the chance to make the fight happen. Williams currently holds down the WBO light middleweight title, and would have to lose some weight to make a fight against Mosley happen. But Williams is young enough to take off the weight without it effecting him too much.

Berto, the WBC welterweight champion, was previously interested in fighting Mosley before Shane fought Margarito. It’s unclear whether Berto would still be interested now that he’s seen what Mosley did to Margarito. The whole perception about Mosley has chanced entirely in the past year.

A year ago, Mosley has struggled to beat Ricardo Mayorga in September 2008. But Mosley looked like a completely different fighter against Margarito, like he had lost 10 years of his age. Trying to arrange a fight with Berto might not be all that easy now, if at all possible.

That would leave Kermit Cintron and Zab Judah as potential opponents. Cintron, 29, recently defeated Alfredo Angulo by a 12-round decision for the interim light middleweight title eliminator bout in May. Fighting Cintron would be an interesting fight. However, it would mean that Cintron would have to move back down to welterweight to take the fight.

Whether he wants to do that would be the big question because Cintron is going through a career resurgence with his win over Angulo. He might not want to mess things up by moving back down in weight unless the money is good.

Judah, 31, has a fight lined up for September of this year against Matthew Hatton, the younger brother of Ricky Hatton. Judah won’t be available until later on this year unfortunately.