By Jason Kim: According to fightnews.com, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is planning on taking a trip to Monterrey, Mexico, presumably so he can scout out the city for his two fighters Manny Pacquiao and Antonio Margarito. Arum has been leaning in the direction of having Pacquiao fight Margarito next rather than putting Pacquiao in a rematch that few boxing fans want to see right now with Miguel Cotto.

The reason that Arum is going to Mexico rather than looking at venues in the United States if because Margarito still doesn’t have his boxing license to fight in the U.S., and Arum has little choice but to put the Margarito-Pacquiao fight outside of the U.S. unless he wants to wait until Margarito can get his boxing license back from the California Athletic Commission.

That, unfortunately, may never happen. While it’s possible that Arum can somehow get the California Commission to give Margarito’s boxing license back, it’s perhaps equally possible that they may choice not to give Margarito his license back for the remainder of his career. Since Margarito is now 33, he and Arum don’t have a lot of time to waste waiting on one of the Athletic Commissions to give Margarito back his license.

Margarito has fought once since serving a one-year suspension for having a plaster-like substance found on his hand wraps before his fight against Shane Mosley last year. Margarito defeated Roberto Garcia by a 10 round decision in March.

Arum wants either Cotto or Margarito to fight Pacquiao next. If Floyd Mayweather Jr., who wasn’t interested in fighting Pacquiao in November, still doesn’t show any desire to fight Pacquiao in early 2011, then Arum will likely match Pacquiao up with either Margarito or Cotto again. Whichever fighter doesn’t get picked this time around, they’ll get chosen next time in early 2011, unless Mayweather decides on fighting Pacquiao.

What will really be interesting to see is if Arum continues to match Margarito and Cotto against Pacquiao like a continuous merry-go-round for the remainder of Pacquiao’s career. Without Mayweather, Arum has few options of finding other opponents in his Top Rank stable other than Cotto and Margarito. He already matched him against Joshua Clottey, and that’s a fight that boxing fans will never want to see again.

Of course, I never thought that we would ever see Pacquiao fight Cotto again after last year, but we are with the possibility of him fighting Pacquiao in November or in early 2011. Ideally, Arum will expand his Top Rank stable and add all the fighters that Pacquiao should be fighting like Paul Williams, Sergio Martinez, Shane Mosley, Juan Manuel Marquez, Amir Khan and Andre Berto.