Manny Pacquiao Next Fight: Freddie Roach Believes Floyd Mayweather Won’t Face ‘Pacman’ in 2015

By Paul John Rivera First Posted: Nov 10, 2014 03:40 PM EST

Freddie Roach wants Manny Pacquiao to face Floyd Mayweather Jr., but the Hall of Fame trainer is quite sure that the reigning pound-for-pound king will continue to dodge the Filipino boxing icon.

Roach said in an interview with The Philippine Star that he is still hoping that the Pacquiao-Mayweather superfight will eventually happen because he is confident that his fighter could hand the unbeaten champion the first defeat of his career.

"I don't know if it'll ever come off," Roach said of the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight. "I hope it does because I know Manny can beat him."

However, Roach said that based on what he is hearing from people close to Mayweather's thinking, the Grand Rapids, Michigan, native is still not interested in working with Top Rank Promotions.

Mayweather also wants Showtime to carry the fight on pay-per-view, which is expected to be turned down by Pacquiao, who is in contract with HBO Sports.

"From what I hear, Mayweather refuses to work with Top Rank and will only fight at the MGM because they pay him to fight there," Roach said. "Mayweather has a great deal with Showtime. Even if Showtime loses on his fights, he ends up making lots of money so I can't see that changing."

Like Roach, boxing fans are still hoping that Mayweather and Pacquiao will eventually set aside their respective egos and agree to face each other before they retire. But for the fight to happen, Pacquiao needs to handle Chris Algieri first in their World Boxing Organization welterweight title fight on Nov. 22 in Macau, China.

When asked to predict the outcome of the Pacquiao-Algieri title fight, Roach said that he expects Pacman to knock his challenger out within five rounds, pointing out that the former pound-for-pound king is already in perfect shape two weeks before the fight.

"Manny's always in great shape," Roach said. "When I arrived in General Santos over a month ago, Manny did 12 rounds of mitts, and that was our first workout in the gym. He's doing great in sparring. We brought in a lot of sparmates to keep him busy, to make him think. Conditioning will be key in this fight because we expect Algieri to be in excellent condition."

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