By Jim Dower: If former IBF/WBA welterweight champion Antonio Margarito (38-6, 27 KO’s) wants to get a shot against fellow Top Rank fighter WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao, he’s going to have to apply to get his boxing license renewed by the California Athletic Commission. Earlier today on Friday, the 32-year-old Margarito’s request to get his boxing license reinstated by the Nevada Athletic Commission was denied by a 4-1 vote. The commission said that Margarito needs to go to the California Athletic Commission and try to get his boxing license back from them.

It was the California Commission that took away Margarito’s boxing license last year after a plaster-like substance was found on Margarito’s hand wraps before his January 24th 9th round TKO loss to Shane Mosley. It’s been pretty much a given that Margarito should try to get his boxing license back from the California Commission, as the other boxing Commissions tend to follow along with the original commission’s verdict for matters like this.

However, instead of going to the California Commission, an application was put in with Texas and then with the Nevada Athletic Commission. What this means now is unless Margarito is able to move quickly and apply to the California Commission, it’s unlikely that Margarito will be an option for Pacquiao’s next fight on November 13th. Currently, Bob Arum, the promoter for Pacquiao, Cotto and Margarito, has given Floyd Mayweather Jr. a mid-July deadline to say whether he’ll be agreeable to the contract with Pacquiao for a potential November fight.

With Mayweather saying nothing, it’s looking like Mayweather may be off the table unless he speaks up in the next week. With Margarito unlikely to get his boxing license back in the short term, that only leaves WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto as a likely opponent for Pacquiao on the 13th of November. Had Pacquiao not already easily destroyed Cotto last year in November 2009, this might be a very interesting fight.

But now, however, it’s a fight that isn’t looked forward to by a lot of boxing fans because they have a good idea who’s going to win. Cotto has fought once since his 12th round TKO loss to Pacquiao, beating WBA light middleweight champion Yuri Foreman on June 5th. Cotto looked slightly better than he had in the Pacquiao fight, showing more of a jab, but that’s about it. Cotto was still getting tagged regularly and didn’t look like he had improved enough to be anything more than another knockout victim for Pacquiao.

Cotto is the best option that Arum has in his stable, as he’s more popular than the other fighters around that weight that Arum has. It might be more interesting to Pacquiao matched up with a different fighter than Cotto, but Pacquiao is into collecting titles from different weight classes, and Cotto is the only champion that Arum has among the light middleweights. Hopefully, after Pacquiao gives Cotto a probable beating and takes his titles, Cotto doesn’t move up and beat one of the middleweight champions. It would be disappointing to see three mismatches between Cotto and Pacquiao.