By William Mackay: Bob Arum, the promoter for Manny Pacquiao, has said more than once that if Juan Manuel Marquez (51-5-1, 37 KO’s) wants a third fight against Pacquiao, Marquez needs to prove himself against a top welterweight like Joshua Clottey (35-4, 20 KO’s) or World Boxing Council welterweight champion Andre Berto. I think the key name here is Clottey. That’s probably who Arum is really hoping Marquez will fight next. Given that Arum promotes Clottey, I think that’s the fight that Marquez needs to take if he wants to try and fight Pacquiao one more time. Clottey needs a big name right now to try and get his career back on track after his poor showing against Pacquiao in March, and there’s probably not going to be anyone even slightly popular interested in fighting Clottey now.

This is a good way for Arum to get Clottey’s name back in the news by having Marquez do him a big favor by fighting him. Of course, it would be crazy for Marquez to fight Clottey unless he’s pretty sure that it will lead to a fight with Pacquiao in the future if he’s successful. Marquez is being linked with WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan for his next fight in December. That’s a good fight if you’re Khan and it will certainly help Golden Boy Promotions build up Khan’s name, because I think Khan will beat Marquez.

But since Golden Boy promotes both Khan and Marquez, I think it’s a stupid fight. GBP will be building up one fighter while having the other one torn down. And the thing of it is, the Marquez-Pacquiao fight will be much huger than anything Khan will be doing in the near future. I think it’s a dumb move if they put Marquez in with Khan right now. I

f they want to build Khan’s name up, they need to do it the right way by matching him against the best top light welterweights in his division like Marcos Maidana, Devon Alexander, Timothy Bradley and Victor Ortiz, not by matching Khan up against smaller and older fighters like Marquez. That’s a cheap way of building up a fighter and it may not pay off if Khan isn’t good enough to beat those guys. All it would do is ruin the chances of Marquez fighting Pacquiao, and give Khan a temporary name for himself until he’s wiped out by Maidana, Bradley, Ortiz and Alexander.