Who Should Pacquiao Fight? (Assuming No Floyd)

Let's say Pacquiao needs to find an opponent. Who should he choose and why?

PROBLEMS
-Manny isn't producing KO's
-People like KO's
-Algieri, Rios, and Bradley are pretty much not stoppable.
-Algieri, Rios, and Bradley were pretty much no-hopers.
-Also, the undercards sucked.

SOLUTIONS
-Find opponents that Manny can KO.
-Find opponents that present a significant chance of winning.
-Find opponents with significant followings.
-Put good fights on the undercard.

OPTIONS

1. Alvarez: 5'9" 173 lb
-Loss: Mayweather
-Signature wins: Trout and Lara
-2.2M PPV vs Mayweather
-350k PPV vs Angulo
-300k PPV vs Lara
-If Cotto decides to duck Alvarez, this fight will open up due to the relations with Oscar.
-Again, we're assuming no Floyd, so what better way for Bob and Oscar to stick it to Floyd than to put this fight on May 2nd?
-Could sell even MORE than Floyd/Alvarez did, since there will be a perception that Alvarez has improved, is much larger, and Manny could very well lose.
-Would be a great measuring stick for Manny: how does he handle a guy Floyd dominated?
-Limited window to make it happen since Alvarez will soon be a 180lb middleweight.

2. JMM V: 5'7" 148 lb
-1.4M PPV vs Pacquiao III
-1.15M PPV vs Pacquiao IV
-This would probably bring them back to the 1.5M PPV mark. Even Floyd fans and Manny haters would tune in to see if the KO repeats itself.
-JMM's KO of Manny probably reignited some of his support from the Mexican fanbase.
-The fourth fight was the most entertaining of them all.
-It would likely be JMM's retirement fight and an opportunity for him to finally get that last belt.
-Competitive fights and rivalries sell.
-It will actually be a shame if this fight DOESN'T happen.
-Very limited window to make this happen since JMM is old.

3. Cotto II: 5'7" 161 lb
-Lineal at 160
-1.25M PPV vs Pacquiao
-200k PPV vs Mayorga
-600k PPV vs Margarito II
-1.5M PPV vs Mayweather
-350k PPV vs Martinez
-Opportunity for Manny to pick up a historic title in his 24th weight class!
-Puerto Rican fanbase/large gate in NYC.
-Their first fight was highly entertaining and people are saying Cotto has improved...
-This would be a great fight for Puerto Rican Day in June.
-Should easily crack 1M PPV buys.
-Limited window to make it happen since Cotto is going to get hammered by whoever he fights next.

4. Brook 5'9" 160ish?
-Titleholder at 147
-Undefeated
-Signature win: Porter

5. Crawford 5'8" 153 lb
-Undefeated
-Lineal at 135
-Signature wins: Gamboa, Burns, Beltran, Prescott

Likely Unavailable Due To Haymon Protection Plan:
-Maidana
-Khan
-Broner
-Matthysse
-Garcia
-Thurman
-Porter

 

PPV An@lysis (anyone else think it's weird that that's censored but I can still say 'buttsecks'?)

1.4M JMM III
-Even though JMM only beat Katsidis, Diaz, and Ramos since the Mayweather loss, the first 2 fights were classics so this one should have sold about what it did.
-Pacquiao was on a dominant winning streak.

890k PPV Bradley I:
-Bradley does not fit in to the demographic he was selected to appeal to.
-Bradley is a boring person.
-Bradley had an undefeated record and a title but none of his wins were amazing: Boring fight with Alexander and a good fight with Peterson that nobody saw.
-Bradley was not seen as a serious threat because he lacked power.
-Pacquiao had looked awful and lazy against JMM.

1.15M PPV JMM IV:
-The third fight simply sucked. Obviously the fourth wouldn't get as many buys.
-Pacquiao had "lost" a boring fight to Bradley while JMM had beaten Fedchenko in a bout nobody cared about. 2 straight boring fights for Pacquiao.
-There was no reason to expect this fight to sell.

475k PPV Rios
-They took the fight overseas and played it at a sh!tty time.
-Rios was coming off a loss against Alvarado.
-Even though he's Mexican-American, it's not like he's a veteran of great fights like JMM.
-Pacquiao had lost his invincibility aura by being KTFO, but nobody was fooled into thinking he couldn't handle Rios.

750k PPV Bradley II
-The first fight sucked.
-Pacquiao had underperformed against Rios.
-That's 3 boring fights from Manny and a KO loss in his last 4.
-Bradley had won 2 great fights with Provodnikov and JMM.
-There was a slight "revenge" factor, but it felt kind of fake because Manny never seemed mad about the first decision.
-Bradley was no longer considered a boring fighter, but he was still a boring person with no fanbase.
-The fight was not expected to be good, and Bradley was not thought to have a chance.

300k PPV Algieri
-Algieri had exactly one fight anyone had seen, and while he won and it was entertaining, HE wasn't entertaining.
-The "white people" demographic isn't exactly a boxing gold mine.
-Manny and Algieri like each other.
-NOBODY gave Algieri a snowball's chance in hell.
-Manny was coming off of 4 wins that nobody was going to be watching twice and a brutal KO.
-It's surprising that ANYBODY paid money to see this.

 

I can't see a fight with a dude who lost to Bradley and Algieri selling. Plus they're friends and he was a former sparring partner. It's way too one-sided imo and there's a lot I would hate about that bout.

Now if they put Bradley vs. Provodnikov II on the undercard...:hey

Please God no. :barf

Maidana makes a ton of sense...but Haymon.

Fighting Mayweather's leftovers' leftovers is not a good look. much as I would LOVE to see it. Plus...Haymon.

I think this is a smart move. Do it and defend against Alvarez on Independence Day Weekend.

Then go out like a badass against Golovkin next year if Floyd doesn't want to play. :bbb