By Dam Anbrose: For fans interested in seeing a bout between Manny Pacquiao and WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez, it’s not likely to happen unless Martinez is willing to drain down below 150. In an article at abs-cbnnews.com, they say that Pacquiao is interested in fighting Martinez but the fight would “likely below 150 pounds. It doesn’t say how much below 150 Pacquiao would want Martinez to melt down to before he’d agree to fight, if Pacquiao would agree at all. Pacquiao just finished fighting welterweight Antonio Margarito for the WBC junior middleweight vacant titel at 150. But it looks like Pacquiao would want a bigger handicap for a fight against a real junior middleweight/middleweight like Martinez.

Depending on how much weight that Pacquiao would want Martinez to drain down to, it might not be doable. If it’s something like 147 or even below that, it would be almost impossible for Martinez to make the fight without being too weight drained to fight. Martinez said that he’d be willing to fight at a 156 pound catch weight when asked by HBO analyst Max Kellerman if he would be interested in fighting Pacquiao or Floyd Mayweather Jr.

But it looks like Pacquiao doesn’t have much interest in fighting at that weight. Pacquiao is likely going to take on 40ish Shane Mosley next. This is a good safe fight for Pacquiao, because he’d likely be able to beat Mosley even without a weight draining catch weight handicap working for him. Pacquiao says “He’s a good fighter and a champion,” explaining why he thinks Mosley is a good option. One fighter that likely won’t get a fight with Pacquiao is Juan Manuel Marquez. Pacquiao says “No one would watch it.” That’s obviously not true. Marquez is arguably a much more popular fighter than Pacquiao’s last two opponents Joshua Clottey and Antonio Margarito.

The only difference I can see is that he doesn’t fight for Top Rank like Pacquiao and those guys, meaning Bob Arum would have to work with another promoter. But the fight would have a great chance of being more successful than both the Clottey fight and Margarito fights, because Marquez fought Pacquiao to a virtual stand still in their previous two fights in 2004 and 2008. I think the fight won’t get made because Marquez isn’t a Top Rank fighter, because he’s fighting at a higher level than Mosley is right now, and still holds titles, which is more than you can say about Mosley. The article says that “Marquez would be easy” but Pacquiao doesn’t know if the fight would bring in enough pay-per-view buys. I still think Marquez is a better opponent than Mosley at this time, but if they want an easier option, then Mosley is the guy right now.