Since early last year, fans were clamoring for a showdown between two of Top Rank's most talented fighters, Manny Pacquiao and Terence Crawford.
That fight, more or less, went down the tubes two weeks ago, when Pacquiao was upset over twelve rounds by big underdog Jeff Horn, who captured the Filipino star's WBO welterweight title at the Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, Australia.
Pacquiao, now 38-years-old, was not the fighter who most fans were used to seeing dominate his opponents over the last decade - he wasn't even the same fighter that most saw in action last year.
Pacquiao was very much looking his age.
There is a rematch clause in his fight contract, which could force an immediate return bout with Horn.
Even if Pacquiao defeats Horn a second time around, Roach is not even thinking about the possibility of letting him enter the ring against Crawford, who holds the WBC, WBO junior welterweight titles.
"If we fight Terance Crawford right now, he’s very athletic. He’s very mobile. He’s like a young Manny Pacquiao. I don’t think we want to fight a guy like that, at this point," Roach told Sports Illustrated.
Roach admits that Pacquiao hung around this long, because he was trying everything possible to secure a rematch with Floyd Mayweather. In the most lucrative fight in boxing history, Mayweather won a twelve round decision over Pacquiao in May of 2015.
Pacquiao and Roach were pushing for the rematch, because the Filipino star has long claimed that a shoulder injury significantly affected his performance in the fight. Roach wanted to cancel the fight, but he says everyone involved wanted the contest to go forward.
After seven years of hype, Roach says there was a lot of fear that they would never fight Mayweather if the contest was postponed due to a Pacquiao withdrawal.
"That’s why we stayed in the game. We were chasing that fight again. Because I know Manny can fight better than he did the first time he fought Mayweather. Everybody wanted that fight to happen and go on. And I wanted to cancel the fight, because I said, with that shoulder he’s not going to be able to win. Everyone in the world [wanted the fight to happen when it did]. If they didn’t fight then, they said it would never happen," Roach said.