By Edward Chaykovsky

Top Rank's CEO Bob Arum is confident that Manny Pacquiao (57-6-2, 38 KOs) would outbox and outclass the much bigger WBC middleweight champion Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez (46-1-1, 32 KOs) - if the fight came together.

Pacquiao returns on Saturday night against Tim Bradley (33-1-1, 13 KOs) in an HBO Pay-Per-View trilogy bout from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

The Filipino star has never fought beyond the weight limit of 150-pounds, when he moved up to batter Antonio Margarito for the WBC junior middleweight title.

Arum expects the fight to play out in the same manner as Pacquiao's remarkable performance against Oscar De La Hoya in 2008, when the smaller man jumped up from 135 to 147 to give De La Hoya a one-sided beating for eight round before the contest was stopped.

"We are serious about that [Pacquiao-Canelo fight], but there is one obstacle. He has to beat Timothy Bradley and he has to make a decision on whether or not he wants to continue fighting. As far as Canelo is concerned, I think [Pacquiao] would accept the challenge," Arum told Fight Hub.

"With Manny, the way he is now with both hands working the way they are now, Canelo is going to take the kind of beating from Manny that Oscar took....trust me. [Canelo] is not going to catch [Pacquiao], he's not going to catch him."

If Pacquiao does make a decision to continue his career, he might opt to face WBO junior welterweight champion Terence Crawford.

"That’s a decision for Manny. I don’t tell Manny who to fight. I listen to what he wants, and I react accordingly. If he would rather fight  Crawford at 140 than fight Canelo at 155, that’s a choice for Manny to make....it really is. I don’t pick his opponents. He may ask me questions about opponents, about financial aspects, but he picks his own opponents," Arum said.

Arum anticipates the critics coming after him if a Pacquiao-Canelo bout is made.

"Listen I've been in this business 50 years, people are going to attack me and attack my cards. They can say whatever they want. It doesn't bother me. If I didn’t think Manny would beat Canelo, and if [Pacquiao's trainer] Freddie [Roach] didn’t think so - we never would have mentioned that fight," Arum said.