Manny Pacquiao: 10 Boxers We'd Like To See Him Fight More Than Marquez

The fight this Saturday between Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez is an intriguing one and will help close the duo's trilogy.

With that said, Marquez' abilities seem to be diminished and even if they aren't, he isn't the most fan-friendly fighter.  Pacquiao has also elevated his status as a fighter in the time they have faced other opponents.

It takes more than a trilogy with a respected opponent to make boxing fans salivate and want to buy a fight.

Fans want to see Pacquiao fight some of the best fighters all the way from lightweight to middleweight.

Whereas some of these fights might be questionable because of the size difference or because of their lack of name, here are 10 boxers we would rather see against Pacquiao in the ring.

Brandon Rios

Brandon Rios might be young and a lightweight, but Pacquiao is a small welterweight, so the fight isn't too unbelievable.  Rios is also a fun fighter who tries to go for the knockout in every fight and is also young and hungry.

Those last two things are what will be reoccurring themes in this article.  Young and hungry fighters seem to have an edge that older fighters have long since lost.  After a certain point, older fighters have money and fame and no longer feel the driving need that they once did as an unproven boxer.

Rios is a perfect embodiment of those ideals and he is a joy to watch because of it.  He might not have the skills to beat Pacquiao, which is why he is last on this list, but he would put up a great fight.

And at 28-0 with 21 knockouts, he has the flashy record that would help sell pay-per-views.  Plus he is also a lightweight titleholder.

Robert Guerrero

Robert Guerrero may be one of the best boxers to have not really achieved his potential even though he is already 28 and has held multiple titles.

Between having promotional issues and his wife's bouts with cancer, Guerrero has had his career sidetracked.

Now he seems to be doing well and slowly but surely he is starting to push his career to the next level.  A fight with Pacquiao would immediately put him at the top.

Not only would the fight be fun to watch, as Guerrero is an aggressive fighter with good boxing skills, but the story of how he supported his wife through her sickness would draw mainstream attention.  

And that would draw pay-per-view buys.  Boxing being a sport that has focuses on such things could benefit from having two great men with personal morals in the spotlight and still draw a hefty amount of views.

Guerrero is 29-1 with one no contest and 18 knockouts.  He may not have Pacquiao's power, but he has a heart just like the Filipino congressman and the skill set to put on a great match.

James Kirkland

James Kirkland is a little big for a fight with Pacquiao but the Pacman has speed and the fight itself would be a war while it lasted.

Kirkland may have a weak chin but he always comes forward, never wilts and someone always struggles to go on.  These are all attributes that fans love and it usually means that they will tune in to watch any fighter who shows them.

If Kirkland gets a fight with Pacquiao, it's a good guess that fight fans would even pay to see the fight unfold even if it only lasted one round.  That is because both fighters would go all out to try and knock each other out and in doing so, would give the fans their money's worth.

Not to mention it would be entertaining to see the interaction between Freddie Roach, Pacquiao's trainer and Ann Wolfe, who trains Kirkland.  The way these trainers interact would be worth the price of admission in itself.

James Kirkland is 30-1 with 27 knockouts.

Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.

There is not one way in which Chavez Jr. has earned a fight with boxing's biggest star.  He has not shown the work ethic, the ability and doesn't have the resume to even begin to warrant a discussion about it.

But he does have his father's name, which is one that might bring in casual boxing fans.  It wouldn't make the fight any more interesting or entertaining, but it would draw numbers.

And yet there is something in this fight for hardcore fans.

JCC Jr. has shown absolutely no focus on his career and was able to win a title without fighting the champion who held it.  He has also angered fans because he won some close fights that he arguably could have lost.

Which is why it would be satisfying to see Pacquiao smash his face in and show him what a truly talented boxer who had to work his way up really looks like.  It would net JCC Jr. a huge payday, but it would help diehard boxing fans stop complaining about Julio Cesar Chavez' son and the fact that he gets paydays without having to take a step up in competition.

Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. is 43-0-1 with one no contest and 30 knockouts.

Saul Alvarez

If Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. is considered the spoiled son of a Mexican icon then Saul Alvarez is the exact opposite.  He is being touted as the next Mexican superstar and to some degree he has earned the moniker.

He can draw well in Mexico, he has fought decent opposition and won definitively, and has an appealing style of boxing which fans can get behind.  Putting him in a fight with Pacquiao would be rushing his development severely, but there are fans who still want to see it.

Part of it might be the fact that Manny Pacquiao has fought many Mexican greats and won and fans want to see another matchup like that.  Another reason might have to do with the fact that the Saul Alvarez hype is quickly getting backed up by the level of his opponents in the ring and how he is dispatching them.

Hopefully the two won't meet soon as it might damage Alvarez, but at the same time it would be a fight worth seeing.

Saul Alvarez is 38-0-1 with 28 knockouts.

Andre Berto

A few years ago Berto wouldn't have made this list.  He was considered by some to be a pampered fighter by HBO who was given soft touches.

Then he had a brutal fight with Victor Ortiz in which he lost but did more in his lone defeat to gain fans than he had in any of his wins.  In most instances that would put Ortiz in this list instead of Berto, but Ortiz has already faced Mayweather and considering how that fight ended, and the fact that Ortiz hasn't fought since then, that fight probably isn't as appealing.

Berto on the other hand has bounced back from his loss by winning another title and removing himself from the loss column.

Now that Berto has more clout in the boxing world, it might not be so impossible to see this fight happen.  He has the speed, strength and now has shown that he has the heart to test Pacquiao and put on a good fight.

Fans may even get to one day see it.

Andre Berto is 28-1 with 22 knockouts.

Sergio Martinez

In this writer's humble opinion, this is a terrible fight to make.  Martinez is way too large and too many weight classes above Pacquiao to make the fight remotely competitive.

Yet it deserves to be on this list because there are a contingent of fans who wish to see it happen.  In some ways that isn't surprising.

Both men are at the top of the pound-for-pound lists and both have acquitted themselves against top-tier competitors.

They also both seem to be running out of challenges.  If they were closer in weight it might just be a fight that could equal Mayweather-Pacquiao.

Not only is Martinez large enough to give Pacquiao problems, but he has the power, speed and underrated boxing technique to keep the Pacman at a distance and potentially finish him off down the line.

Considering the fact that Pacquiao hasn't been able to find a suitable challenge in recent years, Martinez might be a fight that could happen.

Sergio Martinez is 48-2-2 with 27 knockouts.

Marcos Maidana

Maidana isn't the most technical fighter and he certainly hasn't proven himself to be the best in the world.  He has proven that he has a tough chin, power in both hands and will keep coming forward though.

Much like Kirkland, this would be a fight that might have an obvious outcome even before the match took place, but would be so entertaining in getting there that fans might just forgive the mismatch.

Anyone who has watched Maidana's fight with Amir Khan knows that Freddie Roach would probably be able to come up with another successful game plan for stopping the Argentinean.  Then again, anyone who watched the Khan-Maidana fight would also remember how fun it was.

A fight with Pacquiao could only be more enjoyable.

And when a fight is going to make a fan pay $50 to see it, that just might be the most important thing.

Marcos Maidana is 31-2 with 28 knockouts.

Timothy Bradley

If Bradley had fought Khan in a proposed fight to see who the best at light welterweight is, this fight may have come even closer to being No. 1.

But he didn't.  He turned down a $1.4 million payday because he wanted a better fight.  Considering he has now signed a deal with Top Rank and is fighting Joel Casamayor on the Pacquiao-Marquez undercard, he just might get the fight.

It wouldn't be the most exciting fight that could be made, but it would be one of the best opponents and one of the most evenly matched when it comes to physicality.

Bradley may lack the power to match Pacquiao's, but he does have speed, cardio and the ability to box, which is lost in many modern fighters.

The fight won't be the biggest seller as far as Pacquiao fights go, but it wouldn't be the worst.

Timothy Bradley is 27-0 with 11 knockouts. 

Floyd Mayweather Jr.

It is never good for the last slide to be too predictable, but in this case it's going to have to be.  There just isn't any other fight that fans want to see more than Pacquiao-Mayweather.

The fight would do a ridiculous amount of buys, get a ridiculous amount of coverage and get more attention on boxing than any single fight in the last few years.

There isn't really any point in explaining why fans should want to see this fight.  It has been done a million times and any fan reading this probably knows every conceivable angle.

It just boils down to Mayweather and Pacquiao being the best and fans wanting to see who is better.

Hopefully, if Pacquiao wins on Saturday, we get to see the fight and finally put this story to rest.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. is 42-0 with 26 knockouts.