By Chris Williams: Ever since WBO light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley (26-0, 11 KO’s) moved up in weight to easily defeat knockout artist and top welterweight contender Luis Carlos Abregu (29-1, 23 KO’s) last weekend, boxing fans have been asking why Manny Pacquiao won’t fight Bradley instead of who he will end up fighting Antonio Margarito or Miguel Cotto.

Bradley, 26, has been fighting on both Showtime and HBO, has built up quite a following among hardcore boxing fans. He still needs that one big fight to get him over the hurdle and make him a mega star in the mode of Floyd Mayweather Jr, and Pacquiao.

However, if Bradley is going to get there, and he surely will, it won’t be by fighting Pacquiao. Just last week, Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum said “No free rides,” meaning he’s not going to help out another non-Top Rank fighter make a name for himself by matching him against his biggest star Pacquiao.

However, I don’t know how Arum is going to avoid matching Pacquiao up with a non-Top Rank fighter sooner later, unless Pacquiao decides to hang up his gloves after he fights his next two fights against Top Rank fighters Cotto and Margarito. Arum wants to match Pacquiao against Mayweather, who isn’t a Top Rank fighter, but because of the huge money that fight will generate it won’t really matter. Arum will do really well regardless.

However, it’s too bad that Arum won’t match Pacquiao against Bradley while he waits on Mayweather to start showing some interest in a fight against Pacquiao. Bradley would make for exciting fight because he’s faster than both Margarito and Cotto, and would be able to move around the ring and hit and run against Pacquiao.

Perhaps for that very reason, Bradley might not get the shot against Pacquiao, because he would have a very real shot at beating the Filipino star. You can’t say the same thing about Margarito and Cotto. Few people think either of them have a chance. Besides the fact that Cotto and Margarito have no chance at beating Pacquiao, they’re not appealing fights that boxing fans want to see right now.

Cotto already got his chance in the Pacquiao lottery, and lost badly in a boring one-sided fight last November. Arum is pushing the rematch with a different angle, pointing out that Cotto is now trained by Emanuel Steward, and has the WBA junior middleweight title in his possession. Pacquiao will then be able to shoot for an 8th world title. This is something that only the most diehard of Pacquiao fans would even care about.