By Dave Lahr: If WBA/WBO lightweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez is to get a fight with Manny Pacquiao, it looks as if Marquez is going to have to come in at a lower figure than what he made in his fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. last year, according to Michael Marley at examiner.com.

It seems that Marquez’s promoter Richard Schaefer gave Top Rank promoter Bob Arum a purse proposal for what Marquez wanted in a fight with Pacquiao and Arum wasn’t pleased, saying “It’s not realistic and I don’t think Schaefer really wants Juan to fight Pacquiao again.”

Apparently, the money that Marquez is asking for is more than what Arum is willing to pay him for the fight. Arum says “How do they ask us to pay the same amount he got for the Mayweather fight, which he lost? How do they ask for the same amount or even anything slightly less than that? It makes zero sense.”

Since Marquez made $4 million in the Mayweather fight, Arum must think that’s too much for Marquez to make against Pacquiao. He must really want to get him cheap, because Arum’s stable fighters Antonio Margarito and Joshua Clottey made more than that in their fights with Pacquiao. So Marquez should make less than Clottey and Margarito, even though he’s accomplished much more than both of them? Now that makes zero sense to me.

I think Marquez has accomplished more in his career than Clottey and Margarito put together, and I think he deserves at least $4 million and even more than that. He fought Pacquiao to an even standstill in their two fights in the past, and that shows you he’s not some scrub that’s undeserving of $4 million or less. When I see Arum making comments about Marquez, it just makes me think he’s not interested in matching Pacquiao back up against Marquez for fear of Pacquiao getting beaten this time. It would hurt the gravy train if Marquez whips Pacquiao, and Marquez has the best chance of any of the fighters that Arum has been mentioning as the possible next opponents for Pacquiao to fight in April 2011.

Arum likes the idea of matching Pacquiao up against soon to be 40-year-old Shane Mosley in his next fight, even though Mosley is now looking totally shot in his last two fights. It’s an easy fight for Pacquiao, and there wouldn’t be the danger of Pacquiao losing like there would be if he were to fight Marquez.