By Chris Williams: Michael Koncz, the adviser for Manny Pacquiao, expects that an opponent will be picked out by as early as next week for Pacquiao’s next fight on December 1st. However, don’t count on it being Miguel Cotto, because there’s little chance of Pacquiao and his promoter Bob Arum agreeing to fight Cotto in New York because of the state taxes there.

Cotto already has Madison Square Garden booked for December 1st, which pretty much rules him out for Pacquiao. According to Dan Rafael, if there is going to be a Cotto-Pacquiao fight, it will have to be in Nevada, because there’s no state taxes there.

Koncz told ESPN.com “We still need to start promoting it, and we should make a final decision in the next week or so.”

Koncz doesn’t think Floyd Mayweather Jr. will be ready to fight Pacquiao by December, saying “I don’t believe he is ready. Floyd just got out of jail.”

This leaves only Juan Manuel Marquez and Tim Bradley in the Pacquiao lottery. You have to figure that Marquez is out of the loop because he said previously that he didn’t want to fight Pacquiao in Nevada again because he’s lost two questionable decisions there and fought to an equally controversial draw. Besides that, there’s talk of Marquez wanting too much money, and that this would get in the way of Pacquiao making his normal $25 million per fight.

The Bradley-Pacquiao rematch might not bring in big money like fights against Cotto or Marquez, but won’t have to deal with fighting in New York and getting taxed or having a smaller payday if he were to fight Marquez.

Ideally, it would be good to see Pacquiao fight someone new for a change, but that’s not going to happen. Arum is in the retread phase with Pacquiao and he’ll likely match the his cash cow fighter against Cotto, Marquez and Bradley in the near year. I don’t see Mayweather getting a shot, not with those three fighters still around waiting for rematches.

One would hope that Arum doesn’t go for round of fights between Pacquiao and Bradley, Cotto and Marquez after this one. It’s off putting as it is, and to see Pacquiao fighting only three guys over and over again will make it look like a little four-man boxing club where they only fight each other.