By Chris Williams: Bob Arum of Top Rank has perhaps given a good indication of who he plans on matching his fighter WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao up against next, if Floyd Mayweather Jr. doesn’t beat Arum’s Friday deadline at midnight, that is. In an interview by Michael Marley at Examiner.com, Arum says “I have to look at what sells and, yes, [Miguel] Cotto has Emanuel Steward now and a second bout with Manny would be at 154 pounds, but the [Antonio] Margarito fight is the more saleable bout in my view.”

That is interesting to know, because there’s a lot of people who believe the opposite, that the Cotto-Pacquiao rematch is the better fight compared to a fight between Pacquiao and Margarito, which would have to take place outside of the U.S. because Margarito doesn’t have a boxing license to fight.

Neither option is particularly appealing, however. It’s like picking two pieces of rotting fruit and making a guess about one being a little better than other. Cotto is a great fighter, don’t get me wrong, but he’s done zero to reestablish him since his 12th round knockout last year against Pacquiao.

Cotto’s win over Yuri Foreman in June left more questions than answers in terms of how much Cotto has left in the tank. Margarito isn’t hugely popular in the United States, and it’s doubtful that a fight between Pacquiao and Margarito would bring in the kind of PPV numbers that would make him worth it.

At best, I see Margarito vs. Pacquiao bringing in possibly 800,000 PPV buys, but no more than that. Margarito was dominated last year in his loss to Shane Mosley, and looked like a completely different fighter in his comeback win over Roberto Garcia in May. I think Arum might be looking in the past if he thinks that Margarito will be a saleable opponent for Pacquiao to fight. If this was a time machine and we were back in 2008 after Margarito had beaten Cotto to a pulp in an 11th round stoppage, I would say that it was a brilliant choice for Arum to pick Margarito as an opponent for Pacquiao.

But the loss to Mosley, the hand wrap problems, and how mediocre Margarito looked in his comeback fight against Garcia leads me to think Margarito is a bad choice for Pacquiao to fight. It would wiser to let Margarito rebuild his name, pick up some good wins, let people try and forget about the hand wrap incident before using him as an opponent for Pacquiao.