By Chris Williams: If WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao can get by 38-year-old Juan Manuel Marquez in their third fight on November 12th in Las Vegas, Nevada, Bob Arum, the promoter for Pacquiao, will be looking to match Pacquiao with both Top Rank fighters Mike Jones (25-0, 19 KO’s) and Timothy Bradley (27-0, 11 KO’s) in 2012.

Bradley appears to be a little better candidate for Pacquiao’s first fight in 2012, as Bradley has much more experience against quality opposition than Jones, and is much better known by the casual fans in the U.S. Jones is someone that is still starting out and trying to make a name. By matching Pacquiao against Jones at this point in Jones’ career, Arum will effectively be using Pacquiao to increase the popularity of Jones.

That could work for Jones or against depending on how well he fights. If he looks terrible the way that other Top Rank stable fighters like Antonio Margarito and Joshua Clottey looked in losing to Pacquiao, then Arum won’t be doing Jones any favors by matching him up against Pacquiao other than the payday Jones gets for the fight.

The 6’0″ Jones has been fighting 2nd tier opposition for most of his career aside from his two fights against fringe welterweight contender Jesus Soto-Karass. He’s going to be facing welterweight contender Sebastian Lujan (38-5-2, 24 KO’s) on the undercard of the Miguel Cotto vs. Antonio Margarito fight on December 3rd at Madison Square Garden in New York.

That pretty much tells you all you need to know about Jones’ chances of being Pacquiao’s next opponent. Arum has put Bradley on Pacquiao’s November fight undercard against 40-year-old Joel Casamayor. As long as Bradley doesn’t screw things up being looking really bad in beating Casamayor, he’ll likely be Pacquiao’s next opponent after the Marquez fight. Jones also will have to shine against Lujan if he wants to get his payday fight against Pacquiao in 2012.

Jones could figure to be a very tough fight for Pacquiao. Jones is a lot taller than the 5’6″ Pacquiao and he looks huge with his long arms and muscular upper body. This could be a very tough fight for Pacquiao, a lot tougher than Arum can imagine. Jones looks more like a big super middleweight than a welterweight, and it’s incredible that Jones can still squeeze into the welterweight division.

Given that Arum has been reluctant to putting Pacquiao in with middleweight Sergio Martinez, who is more of a junior middleweight sized fighter at 5’10”, Arum will be taking a big risk by putting his prized gravy train fighter Pacquiao against a huge welterweight with power like Jones. This could be another one of Arum’s blunders like matching Nonito Donaire against defensive artist Omar Narvaez last weekend.