By Chris Williams: Rumors are circulating that Manny Pacquiao is saying no to the idea of fighting on November 10th, and instead focusing on trying to get a big money mega fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. for early next year. There had been talk of Pacquiao skipping the November date a couple of weeks ago, but his promoter Bob Arum spoke up, saying that Pacquiao would indeed be fighting in November against one of the big three picked out for him to choose from.

However, it now looks as if Pacquiao could be skipping the fight after all and resting up for a much bigger money bout against Mayweather. It makes a lot of sense because if Pacquiao takes the smaller money fight that Arum is offering him against one of the three opponents – Miguel Cotto, Tim Bradley or Juan Manuel Marquez – not only will Pacquiao be getting less money for that fight than he would against Mayweather, but he’d also be putting the Mayweather fight in jeopardy should he lose to one of the big three. At Pacquiao’s age with the way he’s been performing in his last three fights, I can see him losing again quite easily. Marquez has already got Pacquiao’s number, so if Arum wants Pacquiao to fight him, he could be putting him in a situation where he’ll lose or winning another controversial decision that could turn boxing fans off towards him.

In that case a controversial win would be the equivalent off a loss, because boxing fans would be just as turned off as they would if Pacquiao got beat. That’s the thing about the judges. They can give a fighter a gift decision, but if the boxing fans don’t agree with it, which was the case with Pacquiao’s last two wins over Marquez, the win is nullified by fans who ignore it and see it as a loss.