Following his less than convincing majority decision victory over Juan Manuel Marquez in a WBO welterweight title defense last weekend, speculation has been rife as to who the Filipino will choose to take on next. Many fight fans would like to see Pacquiao try to rid himself of the Marquez monkey once and for all, and believe the only way he can hope to achieve that is to beat the Mexican convincingly in the ring. Other fans would prefer to see Pacquiao take on WBC welterweight champ Floyd Mayweather Jr before what they perceive as a decline in the Filipino's skills becomes so dramatic as to render such a confrontation a mismatch.

Emerging from the fallout of Pacquiao Marquez III is WBO light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley, newly signed to Top Rank, the promotional company run by Bob Arum whose roster of clients includes the likes of Antonio Margarito, Miguel Cotto and  Manny Pacquiao himself. Bradley put himself  in line for a matchup with Pacquiao by stopping Joel Casamayor in eight rounds in the chief supporting bout on the Pacquiao Marquez undercard.

While everyone from Pacquiao's trainer Freddie Roach, Bob Arum and Pacquiao himself has subsequently admitted that the bout with Marquez was desperately close (while falling somewhat short of admitting that the Mexican might just have won) and have suggested that he deserves a fourth fight, the feeling within camp Pacquiao is that they have nothing whatsoever to gain from another war against their nemesis – and everything to lose.

Just like Ken Norton was the thorn in Muhammad Ali's side and arguably won all three of their fights between 1973 and 1976 (in reality he won the first but lost the next two), so Marquez has the ability to drive Pacquiao nuts inside the ring. If they fought each other another 10 times, each bout would be a virtual clone of the other, with Pacquiao the aggressor, and Marquez the counterpuncher. 

Each man's style cancels the other one out, and while the Marquez supporters have been more vociferous in their cries of robbery for their fighter, Pacquiao's own argument that Marquez ''ran all night'' and that nobody ever won a world title by counterpunching illustrates his own feelings of frustration with an opponent who he has still failed to figure out in 48 rounds of combat.

Although Bob Arum will look to stage Pacquiao Marquez IV if he fails to put together a fight with WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr, the reality is that Pacquiao and his team would rather put a line underneath any further involvement with the Mexican.

Many fight fans and boxing experts believe that Pacquiao's struggle against Marquez is an indication that he would suffer badly in any encounter with Mayweather, especially considering how one-sidedly the American defeated Marquez when the two met in 2009. On that night, Mayweather returned from a near two-year ring absence to floor Marquez in the second round en route to a one-sided 12 round decision, winning by scores of 120-107, 119-108 and 118-109.

Although Marquez was a much bulkier, stronger fighter against Pacquiao at the weekend than he was when he took on Mayweather in 2009, and had not boxed at the 135 lb light weight limit for a year prior to last Saturday's fight, chances are he would still lose badly to Mayweather today, for no other reason than their fighting styles. Marquez is a classic counterpuncher who thrives on aggressive opponents like Marco Antonio Barrera, Juan Diaz, Michael Katsidis and of course, Manny Pacquiao. 

Floyd Mayweather is the ultimate defensive maestro who plays a simple game of avoiding being hit - a counterpuncher's nightmare. For a counterpuncher to be a counterpuncher he needs an aggressor, so in his fight with Mayweather, Marquez was forced out of his comfort zone and had to become the aggressor, playing right into Mayweather's hands.

In his recent bout against Victor Ortiz, Mayweather was forced to cover up constantly against a wild swinging opponent with nowhere near the skill, speed or power of Pacquiao. Although Mayweather tagged the onrushing Ortiz time and again with straight right hands, his blows had little effect on his opponent, who actually appeared to be in the ascendancy in the fourth round when Mayweather scored his controversial knockout victory – delivered as his opponent looked to the referee for guidance.

While Pacquiao was driven crazy by an opponent who is prepared to take one punch to land three of his own, and who's punches carry knockout power, against Mayweather he would have the opportunity to throw many more punches while knowing that what came back at him would not have the same amount of juice on them.

While many speculate that Pacquiao is on the slide and the time is right for Mayweather to make his move and take advantage of his deterioration, Mayweather himself has made no statement whatsoever as to a 2012 matchup. Perhaps he knows as many do that styles make fights, and Pacquiao's poor display last weekend was far more down to the performance of his opponent than to any erasure of his own skills.

So the reality is that camp Pacquiao really don't want another fight with Marquez, and a Pacquiao Mayweather dream fight is likely to remain just that - a dream.

The most likely candidate to square off against Pacquiao in the new year is Timothy Bradley. The 28-year-old American is undefeated in 28 fights, but with just 12 career stoppages, does not posses the raw power to overly threaten Pacquiao. Bradley is a skillful boxer, but loves to fight aggressively and his style would be guaranteed to blend excellently with that of the Filipino. At 5'6", he is just a fraction shorter than Pacquiao, so the two would be right in each others face for as long as the bout lasted.

Could Bradley realistically defeat Pacquiao? Good boxer as he undoubtedly is, Pacquiao is better, and in terms of experience, it is no-contest. Bradley has impressed in wins over Junior Witter, Lamont Peterson and Devon Alexander, but Pacquiao's roster of victories reads like a who's who of boxing of the last decade. 

When it comes to punching power, there is no competition. Bradley stopped a faded, 40 year old Casamayor at the weekend, his first stoppage win in four years. Last November, Pacquiao's punches broke Mexican iron-man Antonio Margarito's cheekbone. However, the American is no stranger to the rough stuff, and has a notorious reputation for butting his opponents. Pacquiao suffered a bad cut against Marquez on Saturday, so the opportunity would be there for Bradley to stay in close and inflict serious facial damage to the Filipino.

Bradley was floored in the first and final rounds of his 2009 unification fight against big punching Kendall Holt, but recovered both times and won a convincing decision. In general, his defense is airtight and his chin rock-solid, so Pacquiao would have to work hard to get the American out of there. 

That said, Bradley still looks made for Pacquiao, and a big win over an American opponent who is in his 20's, a world champion and undefeated, would reestablish the Filipino in a way that few other fights could.