Manny Pacquiao's Next Fight: Freddie Roach and Bob Arum Offer Thoughts

Freddie Roach and Bob Arum have weighed in with their thoughts on Manny Pacquiao's next fight, which will come on either December 1 or December 8. Both seem like they'd prefer to have Manny face Miguel Cotto, who is tentatively slated to fight on December 1 at Madison Square Garden, with Golden Boy helping with the promotion.

Here's what Roach said to Chris Robinson of the Examiner:

"Cotto makes the most sense to me because he just went the distance with Mayweather. If we can knock him out again at 150, which he said yes to, and if we could knock him out again, our negotiating power with Mayweather would be a little stronger. ... I think it's the most sensible fight out there but Marquez is closer to being made though, because Cotto wants more money."

It was reported recently that Pacquiao and Marquez teams are deep into negotiations for a fourth fight in Las Vegas, with the deal "close" to finalized.

Arum says that he's spoken with Cotto's team and that money isn't an issue for the fight, but he's not sure that Cotto is looking to take a big fight in December, as he's coming off of a May loss to Floyd Mayweather:

"Cotto may be looking for a very easy fight in December. Because, look at Cotto's career. After he lost to Margarito, he did a transition fight with Jennings, which wasn't very competitive. After he lost to Manny, he did a fight with Yuri Foreman."

Arum of course fails to mention that Cotto-Foreman was the greatest boxing event of all-time for about 10 minutes, as it was Top Rank bringing boxing back to the good people of New York at the gorgeous brand-new Yankee Stadium which will no doubt be a fixture in the sport for a long, long time, up there with Cowboys Stadium, but that is just piddly snarky bullshitting from me, and it's got no real point and I'm barely even serious about it anyway, and you know that, so let's get back to the matter at hand here.

I still am guessing that all this Miguel Cotto talk is a smokescreen to keep the news about this interesting. The truth is, any of these fights -- Pacquiao vs Cotto, Marquez, or Bradley -- will do good business, but likely won't be doing huge business. Bradley, it seems, is barely even in the conversation at the moment. Arum says they'd do Bradley vs Marquez if Manny and Miguel do come to terms, but again, I'm guessing Miguel Cotto isn't going to happen. Arum says Bradley is also willing to fight Cotto, for whatever that is or isn't worth.

If I had to bet right now (and it would be a true gamble), I'm thinking Pacquiao vs Marquez IV is going to be the fight, Miguel Cotto will fight someone else on December 1 in NYC, and Tim Bradley will kind of be left flapping in the wind, maybe with that November 10 date.