By Chris Williams: Manny Pacquiao and his promoter Bob Arum haven’t settled on their pick as of yet for the ex-WBO welterweight champion’s next fight in November, but it’s down to these names: Tim Bradley, Juan Manuel Marquez and Miguel Cotto, according to Pacquiao’s adviser Michael Koncz.

It’s widely thought that Pacquiao will sidestep the rematch with Bradley because he doesn’t bring a lot to the table in terms of big money and he has the skills to make it tough on Pacquiao in a rematch by out-boxing the aging fighter. We saw that Pacquiao couldn’t deal with movement from Bradley and that was with Bradley sporting two injured feet. It would be far, far worse in a rematch with Bradley fighting with two good feet. He’d make Pacquiao miss all night and obviously Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum doesn’t want the image that boxing fans see of Pacquiao being that of a stumbling, out of breath fighter that is missing with his shots. He needs a stationary fighter that won’t move more than a foot in either direction so that Pacquiao can get his shots off without missing or tiring himself out by having to move around the ring. Pacquiao looked like he was incapable of cutting off the ring against Bradley, and I can’t see that changing in a rematch with Bradley uninjured

Cotto obviously is the ideal opponent for Pacquiao because he already got whipped by him three years ago in a 12th round TKO loss. However, it’s not going to happen unless Pacquiao agrees to fight Cotto at a catchweight of 150 pounds. Cotto is fighting at 154 now and he’s not going to drain himself down all the way to 147 so that Pacquiao can have an advantage over him. Knowing Pacquiao, I see him being resistant to meeting Cotto at a catchweight that slightly helps him, even though Cotto agreed to fight Pacquiao at a catchweight in 2009 that helped Pacquiao by fighting him at 145lbs instead of 147, the full weight of the division.

What made that catchweight handicap for Pacquiao so odd was that Cotto was the WBO champion at the time, and he had to agree to the catchweight handicap just to make the fight happen. Can you imagine a baseball player getting a handicap by having the ball pitched slower to him or the left field fence dragged in closer so that he can hit the ball out of the park? Cotto should have said no to the handicap. He only has himself to blame for agreeing to it and then losing his title. I think Cotto would beat Pacquiao now, but not if he has to drain himself all the way down to 147 just to make the fight happen.