Roach Could See Pacquiao Fighting Maidana, Then Mayweather

We will likely have a clearer picture of what’s next for Manny Pacquiao in several hours, after Juan Manuel Marquez and Mike Alvarado engage in a contest of who has more left.

The winner could easily get a crack at Pacman in the fall, with that theoretical plan even more of a certainty if Marquez handles the Coloradan, even if he looks only so-so along the way.

That doesn’t stop people, fight fans, occasional fight fans, and even casual fight fans, from bringing up a Pacquiao vs. Floyd Mayweather fantasy faceoff. Pacman’s trainer Freddie Roach knows this boxing game means you shouldn’t dismiss any possibilty, even a remote one, till slim and none have both done an Elvis, and left the building.

Freddie, in a Friday phoner, gave one version of a path he’d like The Congressman to take in his near future. “I’d like Pacquiao to fight Marcos Maidana, get him out of the way, show Mayweather how dominant we are.” Then, he said, they can do a Pacquiao-Mayweather scrap. Freddie watched Floyd on May 3, and it’s fair to say he views Floyd’s contention that he allowed a rumble to occur in many rounds because he wanted to give fans their moneys’ worth with a mega-dose of skepticism. “He’s not about giving people what they want, because then he’d have been giving us better performances,” Roach told me.

I asked if then it wasn’t that stubborn sonofagun Father Time reaching Floyd, impacting “Money.”

“Age gets everybody,” said Roach, who was only 26 when he hung up the mitts, having lost five of his last six outings as a pro. “I think we saw the first signs of decline. Pacquiao will knock Floyd out.”

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