By Jason Kim: WBA/WBO lightweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez will be moving up to light welterweight after Saturday’s fight with Michael Katsidis on Saturday night at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Marquez prefers to face Manny Pacquiao next, but that fight isn’t likely to happen given Pacquiao’s recent comments about thinking the fight won’t interest boxing fans or make money.

Marquez, speaking with Ringtv.com, says “People want to see this fight [Pacquiao vs. Marquez III]. He’s just avoiding me. He doesn’t want to fight me. That’s the truth. I remember I fought him in 2004. They spent four years making a rematch. Now it will be three years and I don’t hear anything.”

Marquez has fought Pacquiao twice and both of the fights were incredibly close with no real victor in any of them. Pacquiao was given a controversial 12 round decision victory over Marquez in 2008, but many boxing fans and writers felt that Pacquiao was given a gift decision. There hasn’t been much interest on Pacquiao’s or his promoter Bob Arum’s part to fight Marquez a third time.

Richard Schaefer, the CEO of Golden Boy Promotions and the current promoter for Marquez, had this to say in an interview at Ringtv.com: “I don’t think Pacquiao or Arum have any interest in making another fight with Juan Manuel because we know styles make fights. And he has the style to beat Pacquiao.”

This is why Marquez is going to be moving up to light welterweight to look to take on the winner of the Marcos Maidana vs. Amir Khan bout next month, as well as a fight against the aging Erik Morales.

Schaefer says “I know Amir Khan would like it. I’m sure Marcos Maidana would too, whoever wins that battle. Another fight I’d like to see and the fans would embrace is Marquez and Morales, if Morales beats Jorge Barrios [next month on December 18th]. All the great Mexicans fought one another but these two never did.”

A fight between Marquez and Morales would be a huge mismatch at this point. Morales is badly faded and has struggled recently against fringe contenders and 2nd tier opposition. He may not get by Barrios. A fight between Marquez and Morales might do well on pay-per-view, but it won’t be a competitive fight and it’s likely going to upset fans hoping to see a competitive fight between them. Morales has lost a lot of hand speed and looks fat at welterweight.