By Chris Williams: There’s little question that WBA/WBO lightweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez (51-5-1, 37 KO’s) deserves a third fight against Manny Pacquiao, but unfortunately because Marquez doesn’t fight for Top Rank and Bob Arum hasn’t been particularly interested in matching Pacquiao back up with Marquez, boxing fans will likely have to settle for watching Marquez chase WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan around the ring for 12 round this December. Compared to the unlicensed Antonio Margarito, Marquez is much more deserving of a fight against Pacquiao, but that’s meaningless because Arum doesn’t seem at all interested in putting Pacquiao back in with Marquez.

You can only wonder why after Marquez fought Pacquiao to a standstill in their first fight in 2004 and then appeared to beat Pacquiao in 2008, but lost a controversial decision. In looking at those two fights, it’s no wonder why Arum doesn’t want to match Pacquiao back up with Marquez and risk losing his gravy train. Pacquiao, if he wanted to, could stand up on his own hind legs and push Arum into making the Marquez fight happen, but he doesn’t seem interested in either in a third fight with Marquez and that says all you really need to know about Pacquiao.

If he’s not interested, then Marquez is going to have to look elsewhere and forget completely about wishing and hoping for a final third fight against Pacquiao. Marquez needs to come down to earth and fight the best opponent he can in his next fight and try to make as much money as he can before he retires from the sport. Marquez is talking about wanting to fight for a fourth world title and is interested in moving up in weight to the light welterweight division. There’s really only one choice for Marquez at that weight and its WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan.

HBO wants the Marquez-Khan fight, Golden Boy Promotions wants the fight and Khan badly wants it. Marquez will make the most money in this fight than he will in any others out there unless Pacquiao suddenly starts showing interest in fighting Marquez, and I seriously doubt that will happen in this lifetime. As such, Marquez is going to have to make up his mind whether he wants to be used as a stepping stone for Khan, because that’s pretty much what it looks like here.

Marquez, the old warrior, is going to be serving a purpose by fighting Khan, a younger star on the rise who needs a win over a star – any kind of star to make a name for himself. Golden Boy Promotions and HBO could find that they’re backing a losing horse by thinking Khan be a future star, just as was the case when Daniel Jacobs was taken out last Saturday night by Dmitry Pirog. However, Khan will likely be successful until he’s finally matched up against the top light welterweights in the division and who knows how long it will be before that finally happens. In the meantime, Khan can pick up some more older scalps by beating Marquez and maybe three or four other fighters on the downsides of their careers.