By Chris Williams: This may seem like a silly question but why doesn’t Pacquiao stand up and tell Bob Arum that he’s not interested in facing Antonio Margarito next? Why is Pacquiao just letting Arum call the shots and pick out whom he pleases? We already know the story about Arum bringing Miguel Cotto and Margarito to Pacquiao and asking him to pick one. But why didn’t Pacquiao just say, ‘no thanks’ to both of them instead of just Cotto? It’s not too late. The contracts still haven’t been signed for the November 13th fight. Margarito had his boxing license attempt declined by the California Athletic Commission on Wednesday, and this was after the Nevada Athletic Commission had already rejected Margarito’s attempt at relicensing by a vote of 4-1.

Besides Margarito not having a license to fight in the United States, he’s pretty well hated by a lot of boxing fans because of the plaster-like substance that was found on his hand wraps before his fight with Shane Mosley last year. That’s something that Margarito is going to have a hard timing making fans forget about. You could compare it to a baseball pitcher scuffing the ball or throwing illegal pitches, like spit balls. But this is seen as a much worse offense, because of the damage that could have been done had the hand wraps not been discovered before the fight. The California Athletic Commission denied Margarito’s licensing by a vote of 5-1.

Arum says he never expected the California Commission to grant Margarito his license. He’s now going to take Margarito to the Texas Athletic Commission in an attempt to get him licensed there. But this looks really bad for Arum, Margarito and Pacquiao, because he’s the one that has to fight Margarito. It doesn’t look like Arum is going to change his mind about insisting on Margarito being Pacquiao’s opponent. But that’s why Pacquiao needs to step up and tell Arum that he doesn’t want to fight him. If Pacquiao is the biggest star in boxing like many people think he is, then he should have no problem speaking his mind about an opponent that boxing fans are cold about.

I can’t believe that Pacquiao really wants to fight this guy. With so little interest in this fight, other than Arum and Margarito’s fans, it seems like the wise thing for Pacquiao to do would be to tell Arum that he doesn’t want to fight Margarito. Even if Pacquiao’s adviser Michael Koncz has to be the one to tell Arum for Pacquiao, I think it would be smart if Pacquiao made that happen.

I don’t see this as being a fight that’s good for boxing and I don’t think it’s good for Pacquiao, because he could probably make much more money in a rematch with Juan Manuel Marquez or a fight against guys like Paul Williams, Sergio Martinez or Shane Mosley. Those would be great fights and I would be willing to bet they would do better on PPV than the Margarito fight will.