By Esteban Garduno: In the latest boxing news, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum says he sees the Joshua Clottey vs. Manny Pacquiao bout winding up with no less than 650,000 buys, according to Dan Rafael of ESPN. Arum thinks that the numbers could end up much higher than 650,000 for the Clottey bout, which would be great news for Pacquiao, because if he can prove that he can bring in huge numbers against an obscure opponent like Clottey, who the public has no clue about, then it means that Pacquiao can bring in equally huge numbers against any fighter that’s selected for him to fight.

This means that there would be no reason for Pacquiao to be put in with a risky opponent like Floyd Mayweather Jr. next, because if Pacquiao can make huge money against the likes of Clottey, then why risk ending the gravy train by putting him with Mayweather, a fighter much superior to the last three opponents that have been picked for Pacquiao to fight.

Besides that, if the May 1st bout between Mayweather and Shane Mosley wind up doing a lot better than the Pacquiao-Clottey fight, it will make it nearly impossible to get up a fight between Pacquiao and Mayweather unless Pacquiao is willing to take less than 50% of the PPV revenue. Putting together a fight between Pacquiao and Mayweather is nearly impossible anyway because Mayweather wants Pacquiao to agree to random blood testing, and Pacquiao and his promoter Bob Arum don’t want blood testing to be a part of any future fights unless the Athletic Commission directs that the testing be done.

That’s very unlikely, but even if one of the commissions do require blood testing, it won’t mean anything unless all states make blood testing to be a requirement. If they don’t, then Pacquiao and Arum, if they wanted, could always fight in another state where blood testing isn’t part of the requirement for boxers.

Pacquiao says that having blood taken from him weakens him, and that is why he doesn’t want to have blood drawn from his body within 30 days of a fight. Blood testing may be a requirement in all states in the U.S. in the future, but by the time that happens, Pacquiao will likely be long gone from the sport.

If the Pacquiao-Clottey fight ends up bringing in over one million PPV buys, that would be incredible because Clottey doesn’t have a huge Hispanic element backing him in the U.S. like Juan Manuel Marquez did in his fight with Floyd Mayweather last year in September. For that matter, Clottey has few fans at all aside from a small handful of hardcore boxing fans who know of him.

The problem for Clottey is before being selected for a fight against Pacquiao, he had never really beaten anyone of note other than Zab Judah and Diego Corrales, both of who were smaller, and well beaten by the time Clottey fought the. Clottey is actually more known for his losses than his wins during his career.

Before getting beaten by Pacquiao in a painfully boring 12 round fight last weekend, Clottey had run out of gas in fights against Antonio Margarito and Miguel Cotto. He fought well during much of the early going in both of those fights, but faltered down the stretch run when he ran out of gas.

Of the opponents that have been kicked around for Pacquiao’s next fight, he could be facing Antonio Margarito, Edwin Valero or Juan Manuel Marquez. The likely fighter that will get picked will probably be Valero, unless Valero loses his next fight against Lamont Peterson. Margarito would be a problem because he probably won’t get his boxing license back anytime too soon.

Marquez, who many people feel beat Pacquiao twice in his two fights with him, fights for Golden Boy Promotions.

Arum likes to fight guys from his own promotional company Top Rank, so I see Marquez not ending up as an opponent for Pacquiao. Arum would like to match Pacquiao up with Margarito next if possible, but without Margarito getting his boxing license back, that fight probably won’t happen. Valero and Margarito are both Top Rank fighters, so it’s going to be one of these two that get the fight with Pacquiao. Mosley won’t get the fight because he has a rematch clause with Mayweather, so even if he beats Floyd, he’ll still have to fight him next. I think Arum will opt to keep Pacquiao in safe rather than risk him getting destroyed by Mayweather.