By Dave Lahr: Now that 39-year-old Shane Mosley has been hand-picked for Manny Pacquiao by his promoter Bob Arum for what looks to be a horrible mismatch, we can mentally move forward ahead of time after the mismatch is over and look at who Pacquiao will likely be facing next. As they say you can often guess the future of a person by looking at their past and assume that the trends in their life will continue into the future.
Sadly, Pacquiao has been matched up with weather beaten fighters Miguel Cotto, Joshua Clottey, Oscar De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton, Antonio Margarito and now an old Mosley in the past couple of years. Looking at those kinds of fighters, I would have to rule out a certain amount of guys immediately as potential opponents for Pacquiao. We won’t be seeing Pacquiao against Juan Manuel Marquez, because he handled Pacquiao really well in the past in their two fights and it’s next to impossible to see him ever getting another shot at Pacquiao until perhaps Marquez starts looking terribly shot.
We also won’t be seeing Pacquiao against WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez, because he hits too hard and is too dangerous, even though Martinez is smaller than Margarito, who just finished beating. The difference is Martinez isn’t painfully slow and is a bigger puncher than Margarito. We won’t be seeing Pacquiao face Andre Berto, because he’s got some decent skills and he might be able to beat Pacquiao. We won’t see Pacquiao against Alfredo Angulo, because he’s a more powerful version of Margarito. We won’t see Pacquiao against Timothy Bradley, Devon Alexander or Sergeii Dzinziruk. Those guys can fight a little, so I don’t see them getting the fight.
I see Pacquiao being put in with someone like Cotto again, maybe Top Rank fighters Yuri Foreman or Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. At some point, I can see Pacquiao being put back in with Margarito, because he’s one of Arum’s fighters and by the time Pacquiao has beaten Cotto for a second time, and beaten Foreman and Chavez, he’ll really be in need of someone else to pick off.
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