By Anthpny Klee: Some people think that instead of taking on Shane Mosley, Manny Pacquiao should look for fights with Sergio Martinez, Andre Berto, or Juan Manuel Marquez. While these fights might seem intriguing at first glance, I think Mosley-Pacquiao is currently the best fight Top Rank Promotions can make.

First of all, the Sergio Martinez option is not plausible. Martinez is a robust middleweight that can not make the welterweight limit, and Pacquiao is currently a natural 140-pounder that has to force himself to eat just to fight as a welterweight. The weight disparity is just too great.

Considering how well Martinez puts weight back on after weigh-ins,
Pacquiao would go into the fight against him with a 20 pound weight
disadvantage on fight night. This is not a fight that anyone of Pacquiao’s size should take, whether they have the skills of a Pacquiao, Sugar Ray Robinson, or Muhammad Ali. Anyone who has boxed knows that even a five pound weight advantage in the ring is pretty substantial. The weight disparity between Pacquiao and Martinez would be considerably greater than that. Pacquiao weighed 17 pounds less than Margarito on fight night, and though Pacquiao managed to win the fight, he was really hurt in that fight. There becomes a point at which fighting well above your natural weight becomes extremely dangerous. A Martinez-Pacquiao fight was just not
meant to be.

Andre Berto, on the other hand, is simply too green now. He hasn’t fought any ‘A’ quality fighters, and he should have lost the decision against Luis Collazo. If Berto wants to show that he deserves a fight with Pacquiao, he needs to take on at least one of the upper-echelon 147+ pound fighters like Mosley, Cotto, Clottey, or Margarito. A victory over one of these fighters would establish him an elite in the boxing world. As it stands now, he just hasn’t done enough.

Juan Manuel Marquez isn’t the best option for Pacquiao either. This is
because Pacquiao has gotten better since their last encounter, while
Marquez has remained the same. When Pacquiao beat Marquez, he was more of a one dimensional fighter. He threw a lot of 1-2 combinations, and he did a lot of brawling. Now Pacquiao could be considered a boxer-puncher that can throw a high volume of punches with either hand. He can box, he can swarm, and he can brawl. He is a more complete fighter now, and his footwork and boxing skills have improved. I don’t see Marquez as the most competitive option for Pacquiao now. But if Pacquiao manages to beat Mosley, the Marquez option should still be on the table.

I think Shane Mosley will provide the stiffest competition for Pacquiao.
While Mosley is no longer in his prime, he is not, contrary to popular
belief, a washed up fighter. Mosley looked bad in his fight with
Mayweather because he struggles against ultra-defensive boxers (recall his fights with Winky Wright). He also looked less than stellar in his fight with Sergio Mora, because Mora was backpedaling the whole fight. But these two fights should not be an indicator of his overall ability. When Shane is matched against aggressive fighters, he excels. His style matches up well against them, as evidenced in the Antonio Margarito fight. Styles make fights, and when you put Mosley against an aggressive boxer like Pacquiao, I think you’ll see fireworks. As a matter of fact, I think this bout has good potential to be the fight of the year.

So yes, this is currently the best fight out there for Pacquiao. He has
taken down all of the other best 147+ pounders in Cotto, Clottey, and
Margarito. The best welterweights he can fight now are Floyd Mayweather (who doesn’t want to fight now) and Shane Mosley (who is stronger and more technically sound than Andre Berto). If Pacquiao beats Mosley, Marquez sounds like the next best fight. And in the meantime this would give Berto time to put better boxers on his resume.