By Chris Williams: Nacho Beristain, the trainer for Juan Manuel Marquez, told the record.com.mx that there’s a high degree of certainty that his fighter Marquez will be facing the recently defeated Manny Pacquiao next rather than Tim Bradley.

Beristain said to the Record “Right now there is an 80 percent chance [of Marquez-Pacquiao being made]. It’s a fight that generates more interest and more public money than a rematch with Tim Bradley.”

There’s no doubt that Bob Arum wants to make the Marquez-Pacquiao fight next rather than risk his cash cow in a second fight against Bradley. However, Arum isn’t the one that just got beat, and Pacquiao is leaning towards wanting a rematch against Bradley. I guess it’s something where if Pacquiao leaves the loss standing there, it might not feel good, especially if Bradley turns around and gets beaten in his next fight against someone else.

A fight against Bradley now will still good money, but if Bradley gets beaten by someone else, Pacquiao will either have to walk away from any hopes of avenging his loss or he’ll have to fight him in a bout that would make even less money. That’s why Pacquiao should have taken the $40 million that was offered to him by Floyd Mayweather Jr. If he was going to get beaten anyway, he might as well have gotten a much bigger payday in losing than he would in a bout against Bradley.

A fight against Marquez might bring in a little more money than a Bradley-Pacquiao rematch, but what good is that money if Pacquiao loses? Arum needs to think about that hard because Pacquiao looked absolutely 100 percent horrible in his controversial win over Marquez last November, and I can’t see anything changing in a rematch. Pacquiao has gotten older and his loss to Bradley showed that his skills are badly deteriorating along with his stamina.

If Arum is smart, he’ll keep Pacquiao away from both Bradley and Marquez and instead look to put him in with some of his other Top Rank stable fighters that aren’t a threat to him, like Mike Jones and Brandon Rios. Arum can keep Pacquiao winning for another year if he puts him in with those guys, and with it being an in house Top Rank fight, well that’s good money for the promoter.