By Mark Vester

Freddie Roach doesn't see a Manny Pacquiao vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr. fight ever taking place. Negotiations have been falling apart since they started last year. Twice Pacquiao has been forced to accept bouts against substitute opponents like Joshua Clottey and Antonio Margarito. When BoxingScene.com's Jose Aguirre spoke with Roach, he asked the trainer of Pacquiao if he believes Mayweather will accept a fight with the Filipino champion in the future, and Roach replied with one word - "no."

When asked for his reasons as to why - Roach told BoxingScene - "He waits for Manny to sign a contract with someone else, so he doesn't have to be pressured into fighting Pacquiao. He wants to keep the zero on his record so he can argue that he's the best fighter in the world. So he can say that he's better than Sugar Ray Robinson. As long as he has that zero, he can make an argument, but once that zero is gone - the argument is over."

Roach doesn't understand Mayweather's thinking because some of the best fighters in the history of the sport were beaten several times on the road to becoming great.

"A loss is a part of life. A loss can make you better. Actually, it's good to lose sometimes in our lives to improve ourselves, to get a wake up call. In Floyd's little mind, he's content with that zero. How can he say that he's better than Sugar Ray Robinson at this point in his life? Robinson had a couple hundred fights out there. He's a master of the game and he was a better welterweight than he was a middleweight. But we only have tape of him as a great middleweight. We never really saw the best of him," Roach said. 

"But when he compares himself to those type of guys, it doesn't sit with me too well because he won't even fight the best guys out there today. He actually ducked Margarito a couple of years ago also. He was offered a lot of money to fight him twice and ducked him. He picks and chooses his opponents and if that's what he's going to be happy with....so be it."

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