Manny Pacquiao, 33, is 54-3-2 in his career, winning his last 15 fights. (Robert Beck/SI)

LAS VEGAS — Manny Pacquiao has chosen his next opponent, and it’s not Floyd Mayweather. In an interview at his office Wednesday, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum said Pacquiao has chosen his next opponent — whom Arum would only divulge was one of the four previously reported candidates, Juan Manuel Marquez, Timothy Bradley, Miguel Cotto or Lamont Peterson — and plans to make his return to the ring on June 9 at a new outdoor facility off the Strip.

Arum reiterated that the problem with making a May fight with Mayweather was the timing. Mayweather has insisted that the fight take place May 5, tweeting Tuesday that “the date can’t change.” Arum says construction on a 38,000-seat temporary facility cannot be completed until later in the month. On Wednesday, Arum said he met with construction officials as well as officials from the Wynn and Sands Hotel. Arum also visited the construction site, a 40-acre plot jointly owned by the two hotels.

“To be safe, they said they needed until the end of May to get it done,” Arum said. “Economically, it’s a problem that Floyd created. The amount that would be lost by moving it up to May 5^th is enormous. The fight is not going to happen on May 5^th. We’ll do the fight in November. There is no real magic in doing it in May.”

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LOS ANGELES — When Michael Buffer boomed out Lamont Peterson’s name Saturday night, officially awarding Peterson a pair of junior welterweight titles and ending Amir Khan’s reign atop the 140-pound division, the first person I thought of was Tim Bradley. Bradley, of course, has had a very public back and forth with Khan over the last year, one that intensified when Bradley passed on a $1.8 million payday to fight Khan last summer. Still, I was interested in getting Bradley’s thoughts on his archrival losing to Peterson, whom Bradley destroyed over 12 rounds in an alphabet title fight in 2009.

“I thought the fight went exactly as I thought it would,” Bradley said. “Peterson can box but he likes to bang and brawl. He attacked the body the same way he did with me. He looked a little more confident though. He said he wasn’t mentally ready when he fought me. He said he was a little nervous. He looked more comfortable, like he was ready to be there.”

The ending was controversial, of course, because referee Joe Cooper deducted two points from Khan for pushing. The deductions proved to be the difference in the fight. While Khan protested the referee’s calls, Bradley says they were fair.

“Review the tape, see how many times Khan pushed and shoved Peterson,” Bradley said. “He was pushing him and trying to get space. The ref warned him. He took action. The ref did his job. A foul is a foul.”

Bradley said he had no sympathy for Khan getting a raw deal in Peterson’s hometown.

“It was in D.C., you allowed that to happen,” Bradley said. “You should look at your promoter and say, ‘You set me up.’ Khan goes to Vegas and he does five or six thousand fans. In D.C. there was about nine thousand. That’s more money for the promoter. They thought it was going to be safe but when you go into someone’s hometown, you take a risk. I know when I fight, I look at who is going to be the judge, the ref, everything. Khan has himself and his team to blame. What they did was arrogant and stupid. You are the No. 1 guy at 140 pounds and you allow that to happen? I’ve been saying Amir needs to focus on Lamont and not me and Floyd [Mayweather]. Now he lost his belts.”

Bradley says he has been taking some time off since his win over Joel Casamayor last month but plans to get back in the gym next month. He is waiting for word on a fight with Manny Pacquiao — he is believed to be one of Top Rank promoter Bob Arum’s top choices as a possible opponent should negotiations for a megafight with Mayweather fall apart — but he won’t wait forever. He says he is still open to fighting anyone, including Peterson, who does not owe Khan a mandatory rematch.

“That would be a good fight, a tough fight,” Khan said. “Peterson, now that he has those belts, it is going to be hard to take them from him. It’s definitely a challenge that I would love to face. He’s a guy who can make an exciting fight. It would be a tough fight, but I believe it is a winnable.”

– Chris Mannix, SI.com

Mike Alvarado (above) was beaten and bloodied early, but rallied for a dramatic 10th-round stoppage of Breidis Prescott on Saturday's undercard. (AP)

LAS VEGAS — WBO junior welterweight champion Timothy Bradley (28-0, 12 KOs) scored knockdowns in the fifth and sixth rounds on his way to an eighth-round stoppage of Joel Casamayor (38-6-1, 22 KOs) in a 12-rounder. Casamayor had trouble finding the elusive Bradley, landing just 41 of 290 punches (14 percent).

Mike Alvarado (32-0, 23 KOs) of Denver, Colo., rallied from the brink of the abyss in the most dramatic way imaginable, stopping Colombia’s Breidis Prescott (24-4, 19 KOs) in the 10th and final round of their junior welterweight contest. Prescott had built a lopsided points lead during the first half of the fight, bloodying Alvarado’s face badly. But the 31-year-old Mexican-American rallied hard down the stretch, finally dumping Prescott to the canvas in the 10th and connecting with a series of vicious power shots until referee Jay Nady intervened at 1:57 of the final round. All three judges had Prescott ahead on points until the stoppage.

Juan Carlos Burgos (28-1, 19 KOs) of Mexico won a 10-round majority decision over Puerto Rico’s Luis Cruz (19-1, 15 KOs) for a minor junior lightweight title. Judges Duane Ford (98-92) and Ricardo Ocasio (97-93) had Burgos on top, C.J. Ross scored it 95-95. Burgos landed 172 of 553 punches (31 percent), compared to 155 of 523 (30 percent) for Cruz.

Dennis Laurente (38-3-4, 20 KOs) of the Philippines scored a one-punch knockout of Albany, N.Y., product Ayi Bruce (13-5, 6 KOs) in an eight-round welterweight bout. The end came at 0:57 of the seventh round.

Rising junior welterweight prospect Jose Benavidez Jr. (13-0, 12 KOs) of Phoenix, Ariz., dominated Sammy Santana (4-5-2, 0 KOs) of Puerto Rico, scoring four knockdowns en route to a unanimous decision. All three judges had it 60-50.

Victor Pasillas (1-0, 0 KOs) of East Los Angeles, Calif., won his pro debut by unanimous decision over Jose Garcia (0-4, 0 KOs) of King City, Calif., in a four-round featherweight fight. All three judges scored it 40-36.

In the night’s first bout, Fernando Lumacad (25-3-3, 12 KOs) of the Philippines won an eight-round decision over Joseph Rios (10-6-2, 4 KOs) of San Antonio, Texas., in a super flyweight fight. Lumacad put Rios down in the first and fifth before coasting to the finish. The judges’ scores were 78-72, 77-73 and 77-74.

– Bryan Armen Graham