By Sean McDaniel: If things don’t work out with negotiating a fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. the second go around after Manny Pacquiao dispatches with Joshua Clottey, there’s an excellent chance that we may be seeing Pacquiao take on former World Boxing Association welterweight champion Antonio Margarito (37-6, 27 KO’s) in the Summer.

Top Rank promoter Bob Arum has made no secret that he’d like to match Pacquiao up with fellow Top Rank fighter Margarito next if he’s unable to reach an agreement with Mayweather for a fight. Although Margarito isn’t Mayweather in terms of popularity, he’s probably a lot more popular than Joshua Clottey and will be able to bring in a huge amount of Mexican fans for a second fight at the Dallas Cowboy stadium.

Margarito, if he can get his boxing license back from the Texas Athletic Commission, will be fighting on the undercard of the Pacquiao-Clottey fight on March 13th against opponent Carson Jones (24-7-1, 15 KO’s). There’s little question that Margarito will win that fight, but he will need to look impressive if he wants to increase his chances of winding up with a big money fight against Pacquiao.

For a fighter that many boxing fans have been calling for his head after he was found with a foreign substance in his hand wraps before his bout with Shane Mosley last year in January, Margarito would be in effect winning the lottery if he could be given a chance against Pacquiao.

This fight might end being much harder for Pacquiao than a fight against Mayweather, because Margarito is much more of a slugger than Mayweather and with his high volume which sometimes averages 100 punches thrown per round, Margarito would make it tough on Pacquiao. Naturally, Pacquiao wouldn’t just stand in front of Margarito like some of his other opponents have done, but he would still get hit quite a lot by Margarito.

Pacquiao doesn’t like to clinch a lot, and he’d have to learn to do this if he wants to get out of a fight against Margarito in one piece. Shane Mosley used a lot of clinching in his fight with Margarito to slow his offense down to a trickle. Indeed, Mosley clinched often after every punch thrown to limit Margarito’s ability to fire back.

When not clinching, Mosley moved on the outside out of reach of Margarito’s punches. Roach would have to teach Pacquiao to clinch a lot because he would be at a huge disadvantage against Margarito if he stands and tries to trade with him for 12 rounds. I imagine there would likely be a catch weight for this fight, because Margarito, 5’11”, is five inches taller than 5’6” Pacquiao, and Margarito also has a six inch reach advantage.

Pacquiao’s team would likely want to even the odds in the fight by having a catch weight handicap for Manny. He might need it in this fight much more than he did in his fight against Cotto. I think this fight would end up being much more exciting than Pacquiao’s fights against Cotto, Oscar De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton and Clottey.