By Chris Williams: In looking around on the internet, it seems that there are few boxing fans that are eager to see Manny Pacquiao take on 39-year-old fading star Shane Mosley in his next fight on May 7th. However, that’s who Pacquiao is likely going to be facing unfortunately. Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum likes the idea of Pacquiao fighting Mosley because he sees him as a fighter that casual fans – read: fans who don’t have much knowledge about the sport – will recognize more than fighters like Juan Manuel Marquez and Andre Berto.

To show you who the knowledgeable boxing fans want to see Pacquiao fight next, Dan Rafael of ESPN reports the following stats for a poll on who Pacquiao should fight next: Juan Manuel Marquez at 43%, Andre Berto at 29% and Mosley at 28%. Of course, none of this matters because Arum wants Pacquiao to fight Mosley and that’s who he’s going to fight. I personally think it’s a terrible idea unless Arum makes the fight for free for boxing fans to see, because I think the Mosley-Pacquiao fight isn’t a pay-per-view quality fight. I see it as a good four round ESPN fight at the very bottom of one of their Friday night cards, but not a fight where you would have to pay $55 to see it on the top of an undercard filled with mismatches between prospects and obscure fighters. It’s just not worth that kind of money because of how awful Mosley has looked in his last two fights.

After seeing Pacquiao beat up on Arum’s Top Rank stable fighters Joshua Clottey, Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito in the past two years, I was really hoping that Pacquiao would finally get matched up with someone that is good and is still fighting well and without one of the catch weight handicaps that Pacquiao has been using in some of his fights. Marquez would have been a perfect opponent to break that streak of poor fighters. However, Marquez gave Pacquiao huge problems in their past two fights and it looks like Arum wants to prevent a repeat of that happening. Berto, the WBC welterweight champion, would be a fine pick for Pacquiao’s next fight. But it looks like he’s not going to get the pick, even though I see him as a lot better than Mosley at this point in Mosley’s career.

However, Berto may be fighting too good and would have a chance to pull off an upset. I suspect that’s the real reason he’s not going to get selected for Pacquiao. Berto would have a chance to beat Pacquiao and stop the gravy train before the cash out fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr in the future. I see Pacquiao continuing to be matched against struggling or old fighters until that cash out fight with Mayeather. Once that fight happens and Pacquiao likely gets totally dominated in a lopsided 12 round decision defeat, I see him heading off into the sunset and retiring. It’s too bad Pacquiao isn’t being matched against Berto, Marquez or Sergio Martinez before then, but like I said, those guys would have an excellent chance of stopping gravy train before the cash out fight with Mayweather and I can’t see Arum letting that happen.