By Chris Williams: This week, Manny Pacquiao (57-6-2, 38 KOs) will be telling his promoter Bob Arum who he plans on fighting on April 9th next year, according to Dan Rafael. Arum told him that Pacquiao will give him an answer who he wants to face next by the end of this week.

The choice will come from one of these three opponents: Terence Crawford, Amir Khan and Tim Bradley. Arum promotes Crawford and Bradley. Arum already said that he hopes Pacquiao won’t choose Khan, because he doesn’t promote him.

Pacquiao hasn’t given any hints about who he plans on facing, but given that Arum and his trainer Freddie Roach both are leaning in the direction of Crawford being the guy, it’s very likely that Pacquiao will curry favor by choosing Crawford.

“Talked to Arum today and he said Pacquiao is supposed to give him an answer on who he wants to fight April 9 by the end of this week,” Rafael said on his Twitter.

With the exception of Khan, the choices that Arum has given Pacquiao to choose from are pretty disappointing picks. Pacquiao would be better off rejecting Crawford and Bradley as choices in my view, and telling Arum that he wants to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, Khan or Kell Brook. Those are much better choices for Pacquiao than to see him fight Bradley for a third time or fight the little known Crawford, who the casual boxing fans have likely never heard of before.

I think it’s very likely that Pacquiao will select Crawford for his next fight. I don’t think he’ll do it because he feels it’s the best fight, but rather to please Arum and Roach. It’ll be a mistake on Pacquiao’s part if he makes that choice because the interest in a Crawford vs. Pacquiao fight will likely be about as much as a Pacquiao vs. Chris Algieri and Pacquiao vs. Brandon Rios fights were.

Those were real duds in terms of fan interest, pay per view buys, and excitement. I think Arum believes that Crawford will turn into a PPV star if he fights Pacquiao. Unfortunately, if it was that easy to turn a fighter into a PPV star, then Juan Manuel Marquez, Algieri, Rios, Bradley, Shane Mosley and Antonio Margarito would have all been turned into PPV attractions after their fights with Pacquiao.

That didn’t happen though. Those fighters haven’t turned into A-side PPV guys, and I think it’ll be the same thing with Crawford. You have to have charisma like Floyd Mayweather Jr. or some kind of incredible talent to become a PPV fighter. Crawford doesn’t have any of that in my opinion. He’s just a quiet fighter who uses a counter punching style of fighting.

Mexican Saul “Canelo” Alvarez is a PPV attraction, but he’s got a large built in fan base in the U.S. Canelo also does well because he’s so big for the 160 and 154 weight divisions, which allows him to crush his lighter opponents whether at middleweight or junior middleweight. Crawford doesn’t have the ability to rehydrate to over 20 pounds above his weight division like Canelo.

Brook would be a good opponent for Pacquiao if he could stay healthy enough to face him. Right now, Brook is dealing with a rib injury that has sidelined him for a number of weeks. He’d still be a good choice because it would be a title fight, and it would be new blood. I don’t think there is any interest at all in a third fight between Pacquiao and Tim Bradley. If Arum tries to shove a third fight between Pacquiao and Bradley down the throats of the fans, I wouldn’t be surprised if the fight fails to bring in even 300,000 PPV buys.

I know some fans don’t care about that kind of stuff, but what do care about are interesting match-ups, and that’s interesting one in my view. As far as I’m concerned, Pacquiao vs. Bradley 3 is for a free fight and not even worthy of regular HBO. I think it’s a fight that is only worthy of being televised on regular non-premium channels in the U.S. And Pacquiao vs. Crawford is pretty in the same boat. It’s not a fight that is interesting to me, and like not one that the casual boxing fans will care about.