By Chris Williams: I was always wondered who picked Antonio Margarito out as Manny Pacquiao’s next opponent for his November 13th fight for the vacant World Boxing Council light middleweight title. Well, according to Yahoo Sports writer Kevin Iole, Pacquiao was the one that selected Margarito. Iole says “This is one case where Manny deserves blame. Arum brought both Miguel Cotto and Margarito to Manny as potential opponents and has said repeatedly on the record that Mannyc hose Margarito. Okay, the obvious question is why, when Arum brought Cotto and Margarito to Pacquiao, why didn’t Pacquiao stand up and say he didn’t want to fight either of these guys? I thought Margarito was hand-picked by Arum to fight Pacquiao, but Iole is saying that Pacquiao picked Margarito.

The choice that Arum gave Pacquiao was less than appealing given that on one hand he had Cotto, who had already been destroyed by Pacquiao only last year in November. And then he has Margarito, a fighter who has no boxing license and who was caught with loaded gloves before his fight with Shane Mosley last year. Maybe I’m over-thinking this but why didn’t Pacquiao just say no to both of those choices rather than picking Margarito just because he hadn’t already beaten him. Pacquiao has to know that a lot of boxing fans are unhappy with Margarito. Was this a case of Pacquiao just giving Arum what he wanted by picking one of his two fighters from his Top Rank stable.

If it had been me, I said no to both of them in plain language. I also would say that I never want to fight either of those guys. Going over old ground can’t be good for Pacquiao’s legacy. He already fought needless rematches against Margarito Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales. As soon as Pacquiao finishes with Margarito, you can bet Pacquiao will be fighting Cotto again next year. And if there’s no fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr., my guess is either Margarito will get another shot or Pacquiao will fight someone like Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. What a mismatch that would be. There are so many more interesting fighters that Pacquiao could have chosen rather than Margarito. What a waste.