By Dan Ambrose: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum has already narrowed down Juan Manuel Marquez’s next opponent for July 14th to one of three of his Top Rank fighters – Mercito Gesta, Brandon Rios and Mike Alvarado. Two of those choices, Rios and Gesta, appear to be awful picks if you’re looking for a competitive fight because Rios was given a gift decision in his last fight against Richard Abril last Saturday, and Gesta looked very mediocre in his win over Oscar Cuero last weekend.

Arum told Philboxing.com “[Gesta] looked very, very good and he will probably fight on July 14th on our card in Cowboy Stadium. Marquez will either fight Rios, Gesta or Alvarado.”

I have a feeling that Arum won’t go with Gesta because there’s no way you can sell a mismatch between Marquez and that guy, because he’s not well known enough and he’s so far behind Marquez in skills that it’s not even interesting. Gesta makes Rios look good in comparison. Alvarado would seem like the best pick of the bunch because he looked very sharp in his fight against Mauricio Herrera last Saturday. However, the problem though is Alvarado isn’t a big name yet and he doesn’t arguably have as many fans as Rios yet.

My guess is Arum goes for the cash out fight with Rios by putting him in with Marquez in a fight that will be the equivalent of taking a gold fish and dropping it into a bowl containing a hungry piranha. Marquez will school Rios and beat him up badly. Arum turn off boxing fans by making this fight, but what else can he do? If he doesn’t cash out now with this fight, Rios is likely going to get beaten by a lesser fighter at 140, and once that happens his days as a contender will be numbered unless Arum matches Rios exclusively against weak opposition.

Rios was the guy that Arum was excited about putting in with Marquez, but that god awful performance by Rios against Richard Abril seems to have taken the heat out of a fight between Rios and Marquez. Arum might still try and ramrod in through despite objections from fans, but he’ll not be doing Rios any favors if he does that. Rios needs to quietly work behind the scenes in undercard fights against guys that are more in the same league as him so that he can shine and make boxing fans forget about how inept he looked against Abril. If Arum puts him in with Marquez, Rios will just get clowned again, only this time the judges won’t likely be giving him the benefit of the doubt in rounds where he’s completely dominated like last time.