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We know that Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. won't be fighting each other in the first half of 2012. And we know who Mayweather will be fighting instead on May 5: Miguel Cotto.

So that leaves one part of the spring-season super-duper-star equation left to be revealed, and that's PacMan's June 9 opponent.

Initially, the list of options included four names: Cotto, Juan Manuel Marquez, Timothy Bradley Jr. and Lamont Peterson. Then Mayweather's name was added. Then it was scratched out. Then Cotto crossed himself off.

That leaves three. All indications coming out of every corner of the boxing world suggest that it will be officially announced next week that Bradley will get the assignment.

Nothing against Bradley, an excellent fighter by any measure, but it's time to say what not enough people seem to be saying: This fight should have gone to Marquez. In every conceivable way, he's a better opponent for Pacquiao than Bradley. In fact, as he's proven repeatedly, he's a better opponent for Pacquiao than anyone not named Floyd Mayweather.

In terms of entertainment value, every Pacquiao-Marquez bout is a fight of the year candidate. Every Bradley bout is a technical draw candidate.

From a business perspective, Marquez is the fourth-most bankable name in boxing (behind Pacquiao, Mayweather and Cotto) and his third fight with Pacquiao last November generated an estimated 1.4 million pay-per-view buys. Bradley doesn't have a fan base, meaning a Pac-Bradley pay-per-view will draw however many buys the Filipino legend can draw with just his name and face on the poster.

With regard to who deserves the fight more, the majority of fans believe Marquez deserved the victory over Pacquiao last time out -- in a fight nearly everyone expected PacMan to win by knockout, by the way. Bradley is the top-rated junior welterweight in the world, but his lone fight in the past 12 months, against a used-up Joel Casamayor, hardly qualifies him for a shot at the people's champ.

Looking at what's best for the fans, for fairness and for the folks counting the receipts, it's Marquez over Bradley all day long. So why was Marquez never given serious consideration for a fourth fight with Pacquiao in June? Why was Cotto the frontrunner initially, and why is it Bradley now?

The only explanation that makes sense is that Marquez fought a little too well for his good in November. Say what you will about Bob Arum and his team at Top Rank, but there are no dummies working in that Las Vegas office. Goal No. 1 is to not let Pacquiao lose (except maybe against Mayweather, when Manny is a fight or two away from retirement). And with Marquez, the third fight illustrated that at any weight and on any date, JMM gives Pacquiao fits.

Again, there's nothing wrong with a Pacquiao-Bradley fight. The man known as "Desert Storm" is a top-10 pound-for-pounder and a credible foe.

But he's no Marquez. Not in terms of name value, not in terms of in-ring excitement and not in terms of what's best for the sport.

I guess the Mexican master was never getting a fourth fight against Pacquiao, no matter what transpired last November.

If Marquez had gotten bowled over, as many predicted, it would have provided a conclusive end to their trilogy.

Instead, we got an ending inconclusive enough to ensure that another chapter won't be written.

Within the bowels of the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, amid the furor regarding the unpopular decision to award Saturday's main event to Manny Pacquiao, fans and press alike have had a swath of issues to debate.

Let's get one thing out of the way: Pacquiao lost on Saturday. Yes, he lost. Although the record books will forever show a "W" on the ledger and his bank account is accordingly larger, in every other sense, this weekend was a humbling experience for boxing's one true transcendent star.

Pacquiao maintained that he took a third fight with Juan Manuel Marquez to definitively settle the issue of who won their previous two bouts, which had been ruled a draw and a split decision in Pacquiao's favor. On both occasions, large enough sections of the gladiatorial gallery had crowned Marquez the winner, making it an eternal niggling asterisk on the Filipino's Hall of Fame CV.

So how vehemently vexing it must have been for Pacquiao to be interviewed amid an ocean of jeering after the judges awarded him yet another victory against his most capable foe.

Freddie Roach, Pacquiao's trainer, along with the majority of the press corps, claimed we would see a knockout. We didn't. Marquez's age and bloated size would be vanquished by the younger, lithe and mercurial Pacquiao, many asserted. Not the case.

But the real cherry on this not-so-trifling matter is that Pacquiao's camp now seems to be avoiding a fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr., something the boxing world has lusted after for years. The two have been verbal sparring partners of late and have fought pitched battles in the courts, but it seems perhaps the war -- in the media at least -- may have been won by Mayweather.

Marquez showed us a glimpse of the solution to the Pacquiao algorithm, one that will likely be solved if Mayweather and Pacquiao ever square off in the ring. And although Pacquiao walked away on Saturday with at least $22 million, 28 stitches and the official win, some losses perhaps are harder to quantify.

Pacquiao Khan't beat Marquez

When your own sparring partner and training stablemate thinks you lost, it's probably a bad sign. With the rigmarole of Saturday's boxing circus unwinding, light welterweight supremo Amir Khan chose to pipe up.

"He's got away with it against Marquez," Khan told The Daily Mail. "Even I had him losing by two rounds. He's my friend and I'm happy for him that he won. But for his sake, we have to be honest. He would not beat Floyd Mayweather on this performance."

Rumors abound that the longtime sparring partners are now banned from sparring in case Khan becomes an option for Pacquiao further down the line. For Khan, he sees good reason for these drastic measures.

"Well, let me just say that in our sparring lately, he's not the one getting the better of it."

Trout has no doubts

For those wondering who might face the winner of the Dec. 3 battle between Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito, look no further than Austin Trout.

Who? Yes, that's right. For the less hard core among you, Trout's waist is adorned with a rather meaningless WBA junior middleweight belt. But more meaningful is the fact that Trout is fast, hard-punching and willing to travel anywhere to seek out fights -- something he has done with little fanfare and that has ensured he remains one of boxing's best-kept secrets.

After Trout made his successful network debut last week, his manager, Greg Cohen, announced he expects his fighter to face the best in the division.

"If [Cotto or Margarito] choose not to fight us and vacate the belt, then we'll be the only ones with a rightful claim to be WBA champion," Cohen said. "In that case, we'll make our mandatory against [Anthony] Mundine in a fight that would have not only all the new fans Austin made over the weekend, but the entire continent of Australia also buzzing the day it was made."

Manfredo mans up
In a sport that oozes bravado, honesty and realism can sometimes be the most refreshing of tonics. Peter Manfredo Jr., a fighter who has always tried to maximize his self-confessed limited gifts, will take on Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. on Saturday in a middleweight bout at the Reliant Arena in Houston.

Having often faced the best, including Joe Calzaghe, and having come up short, Manfredo knows that his shot against Chavez is his last shot at glory and looks at the opportunity in the most endearing of ways.

"I've been very satisfied with my boxing career," Manfredo said. "I was an unknown kid from Providence, R.I. I was not a great amateur boxer. If I lose, I hang it up and concentrate on being a good father to my kids."

Refreshing indeed.

Tweet of the week

@JRoche3MR: "Bradley wins the second, if we're lucky Casamayor will headbutt himself unconscious soon and end this"

Timothy Bradley Jr. is angry.

Don't take my word for it. He says so himself.

"I've been angry for the last eight or nine months," he told reporters at the MGM Grand on Thursday. "I've been angry. I've got a chip on my damn shoulder, I really do."

What is he angry about? Well, how much time have you got?

For one thing, he is angry about what he continues to feel was the ineffective way he was promoted in his career prior to joining Top Rank, for whom he will fight his first fight, against Cuban veteran Joel Casamayor, in the chief support bout for Manny Pacquaio's clash with archrival Juan Manuel Marquez on Saturday.

"I felt like I was standing still. I've been standing still for a while. I've only fought twice in the last two years, guys. And I don't understand why," Bradley said. "I came off one of the biggest fights in my career [January's junior welterweight unification victory over Devon Alexander], and I didn't really move anywhere. Fighting the Devon fight didn't do nothing for my career, man. Nothing. Didn't do anything for me. I don't know, man. This boxing game can be tricky, it can use and abuse you. Only the strong survive in this game, and I've learned that now."

Signing with Top Rank, Bradley believes, will give him the push over the top so that he receives the acclaim and fame he clearly thinks he deserves. "I've got a true, real-life promoter now that's going to push me and push me and push me to be superstar in this game," he said. "I'm a three-time world champion. I shouldn't be able to walk down these dang corridors right here. People should know who I am. People should know exactly who I am. I'm a three-time world champion."

But that isn't all. If not angry exactly, Bradley is certainly unhappy about the fact that, as he puts it, "I'm still fighting for respect."

"All the criticism, everything everybody said about me, I want to prove everybody wrong," he said. "People saying I don't deserve a shot at Manny, don't deserve a shot at this, or I'm going to get knocked out: Prove it to me. I don't fear any man. I don't. I don't fear Joel Casamayor. Do I feel he's a threat? Absolutely not. I'm going to destroy Casamayaor on Saturday. Period. Hands down. There's nothing he can do to beat me."

Bradley does, however, acknowledge that he lost a fair deal of the respect he had built up when he turned down an offer to fight rival titlist Amir Khan earlier this year. But as he insists, "I'm going to win it all back. I probably have lost respect from fans, yeah. Even after the Devon fight, people lost respect for me. But it's OK, it's alright."

That path begins Saturday, with a bout he recognizes he needs to win impressively to grab people's attention and perhaps put himself in line for a bout with the man who headlines Saturday's pay-per-view show:

"It's been a while," Bradley said. "This is serious business. I'm ready to go, man. Casamayor, I respect him. I respect him as a fighter, but his time is over. It's Timothy Bradley time. It's 'Desert Storm' time. I'm in the best shape I could possibly be in, man. There's nothing that I fear. There's no one that I fear. I don't fear anybody. Manny Pacquiao, Floyd Mayweather -- I'm ready for anybody. Any time. Right now, man. I'm ready. And I'm going to have a great performance Saturday night. I feel it. He can't stop me.

"I'm stronger than ever. Everything that I went through these last nine months has made me strong. My character is stronger than ever. I've grown. I've grown a heckuva lot, man. I'm a little emotional right now because I want it. You know what I'm saying? I want it."

Manny Pacquiao's trainer, Freddie Roach, is confident that his fighter's third encounter with Juan Manuel Marquez at the MGM Grand on Saturday will be the most entertaining yet. The reason, he says, is that Marquez, who has lately been campaigning as a lightweight, has apparently been adding muscle to make the 144-pound limit for this fight.

"Marquez has become a more fan-friendly fighter; he isn't strictly a counterpuncher anymore," Roach told reporters at the MGM Grand on Tuesday. "Let's face it, when you put muscle on, you put muscle on for one reason, and that's to exchange. I like that. If he wants to exchange with us, I think that's great. He's getting ready for a big fight. He used to be a pinpoint counterpuncher, and I think the muscles are going to hurt his counterpunching but help in the strength area, and so I think he's going to fight us. This will be the best of the three fights with the way both these guys are getting ready, in my mind.

"He's going to come and use his power the best he can. I think he's going to start quick and just go for it, and that's why I'm going to have Manny warmed up really well and ready. [This fight is] going to be good for boxing because both guys are going to try their best and really, really go at it. This is a much more exciting fight than [Floyd] Mayweather."

That said, he acknowledges that a fight between Pacquiao and Mayweather is something for which fans are clamoring and is, candidly, after the Marquez bout, the only one that really interests him. But that doesn't mean Roach is equally enthusiastic about the potential opponent himself, or optimistic the matchup will ever take place.

"I don't see any other real challenges," he said. "I think that fight needs to happen, because it's the only challenge out there. I think about that fight, and it's a great challenge and all that, and everywhere I travel in the world, people are excited about that fight and ask me to make it happen. But I'm getting kind of tired of Floyd, to be honest with you. Shut up and fight or not. He wants to make the rules, he wants to dictate everything. We'll fight him any day of the week, under Nevada state regulations. Who the f--- is he to try and make the rules?

"[If he doesn't fight Pacquiao] there'll be a question mark after his undefeated record. He only fights guys he can beat, little guys and all that stuff. Now he's calling us 'the little fella.' I think he's referring to Manny, but I really don't know. He sends Leonard Ellerbe, his gopher, to make a speech. Who the hell's Leonard Ellerbe? Why won't Floyd say it himself? I'm just kind of tired of it. If that fight doesn't happen, I'm not going to cry."

The first and only time Juan Manuel Marquez fought as a welterweight, he was knocked down and dominated over 12 rounds by Floyd Mayweather Jr. in September 2009. Two years and two months later, he'll be in the same MGM Grand ring in Las Vegas, fighting as a welterweight for a second time. But this time he is confident the outcome will be different -- not just because he has fought Saturday's opponent, Manny Pacquiao, before and not just because he has taken a different approach to building himself up to the requisite weight.

"The biggest difference, obviously, is that Mayweather doesn't come to fight," he told a small group of reporters at the MGM on Monday. "He's a defensive fighter, he's not going to give you anything." By contrast, "Pacquiao is a great fighter, a spectacular fighter who's coming for you. We're going to be ready for him, and if he makes a mistake, we're going to make him pay for it. The other guy wouldn't make a mistake. He wouldn't fight."

It is, Marquez said, Pacquiao's relentless aggression that, as well as making for more compelling viewing, makes him a better fit for the way he fights.

"They always say that styles make fights, and I think my style happens to be difficult," he said. "All boxers have a difficult opponent, and I guess my style is the most difficult for Pacquiao."

It's a sentiment with which the fight's promoter, Bob Arum, agrees.

"It really comes down to the fact that the style of Marquez is such that it will always give Manny Pacquiao trouble," Arum said. "Manny only knows one style, and that's to attack, and Marquez is probably the best counterpuncher in boxing today, and he gets aggressive off the counterpunching. That will still be there, and Marquez has great recuperative powers."

Even so, Arum acknowledges that, for this upcoming third contest between the two men, Pacquiao will be the favorite, although he insists that it isn't because this bout will be fought at welterweight -- 17 pounds heavier than their last encounter -- a division in which the Filipino has been comfortable for two years.

"Now, if there's a difference in the fight, it is not the weight, it is not the strength, because Marquez has bulked up," Arum said. "The one reason why you have to favor Pacquiao is because when Marquez fought him the first two times, Pacquiao was a one-handed fighter. And now Pacquiao not only has a right hand, but his right hand is as powerful as the left hand, which means that he is, to my knowledge, the only fighter around today who is a true switch-hitter, who can hit as hard with the right hand as the left hand -- which, incidentally, Mr. Mayweather knows, and that's why he'll never fight him."

Marquez, however, is unfazed by any developments in Pacquiao's technique and style.

"Obviously he's changed over the years," Marquez said. "He uses his right hand more, he has a little more speed. But obviously I know all of that, so I've adjusted my work to that. My strategy is to nullify all of that."

Marquez remains convinced that he won both their previous encounters -- a draw in 2004 in which the Mexican recovered from being knocked down three times in the first round, and a split-decision loss in 2008 in which Marquez again visited the canvas, albeit this time only once. The second bout, Marquez believes, was a particularly clear win, a result of which he had no doubt. And indeed, anyone who was present at the postfight press conference can attest to the strength of aggrieved feelings within Camp Marquez that night. His countrymen and supporters, the fighter says, feel the same way, and they tell him so at every opportunity, a gesture of faith he intends to repay.

"They always tell me, you won the first two fights, you can do it again," he said. "All the fans tell me, do it for us; do it for Mexico. And that's what I do it for. I do it for me and my family, for Mexico and for all the fans who have always supported me."