No match: Neither Mayweather nor Pacquaio will give Amir Khan a fight

Amir Khan's hopes of Floyd Mayweather finally agreeing to meet him in a megabucks fight have been dismissed as an empty dream by Manny Pacquiao's legendary trainer.

Freddie Roach has also poured cold water over speculation that his PacMan might fight Khan, who has nominated Pacquiao as his alternative opponent to Mayweather.

Khan, the victim of a broken promise by Mayweather once already, has been encouraged to believe that victory over former world champion Devon Alexander next month will lead to a Las Vegas showdown with The Money Man next May.

But Roach said: 'It's not going to happen.'
Nor is he speaking out of sour grapes for Khan leaving him for another American trainer after losing the two world titles to which he had been guided by Roach.

In fact, Roach bases that assessment on his belief that Bolton's favourite son would present problems to the boxer rated the pound-for-pound best in the world.

Roach says: 'Floyd knows that Amir's speed would trouble him. He is too careful with his choice of opponents to take that risk.

'Floyd also knows he himself doesn't possess the knock-out punch which would make him more certain of winning that fight.'

Pacquiao, however, does carry concussive one-punch power and Roach reveals for the first time that he used it to KO Khan several times in sparring when they were training together in his Wild Card gym in Los Angeles.

Roach says: 'Manny frequently put Amir on the floor, knocking him cold four or five times.'

Since that was inflicted with gloves more thickly padded than those used in actual fights and Pacquiao is as fast as Khan, Roach says: 'There's no point Manny fighting Amir. The reality is that it's no big fight.'

Pacquiao, always courteous and diplomatic, politely went along with the notion of a Wembley Stadium fight when it was put to him. But he made clear later: 'I do not choose who I fight. That decision is always made by my trainer and promoter.'

Roach will advise Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum against taking Pacquiao to London 'for a non-fight', even though he expects Khan to edge Alexander in Vegas on December 7.

He says: 'Amir can win this one because although Alexander has good skills he doesn't have a big punch'.

Roach shares Arum's belief that only a phenomenal financial offer will lure Mayweather into boxing any opponent who would seriously imperil his cherished unbeaten record.

Roach says: 'Manny is the one really big threat. That's why everyone has been wanting to see them fight for so long. And that is why this is the only fight which can raise enough money to get Floyd into the ring with someone truly dangerous.'

Arum is working towards an offer which no man who calls himself Money and is so obsessed with the folding stuff can possibly refuse - namely a minimum £95million purse from an unprecedented Billion Dollar Fight.

That depends on him pioneering pay-per-view television in the gigantic Chinese market, which in turn relies on both Pacquiao and the ring idol of the People's Republic Zou Shiming winning their fights here this weekend.

Pacquiao's catch-weight defence of his world welterweight title against New York's undefeated light-welter champion Chris Algieri marks the second time Shiming has been the PacMan's chief support in Macau's Cotai Arena.

Shiming, a gold medallist at the Beijing and London Olympics, has his first 12-round assignment in only his sixth professional fight. 

Curiously, it is against an unbeaten Thai flyweight who looks so much like Pacquiao that his appearance at the final press conference caused much amusement and we dubbed him Mini-Manny.

Shiming, whose fights are watched by hundreds of millions on the mainland, is more crucial to the Chinese pay-TV project - with its potential for generating more than half the billion dollar target -than even PacMan versus the Money man.

Arum says: 'We're getting there with this deal.'
So he is trusting that Mini-Manny only resembles Pacquiao in appearance, not explosive boxing ability.

Assuming all goes according to plan, Arum will then concentrate on the power of money.

Of Mayweather's luxury spending on an industrial scale - designer watches, diamond jewellery, luxury cars, nightclub ladies and now a gold-plated Bentley golf cart for his son's birthday - Roach says: 'We are watching the way he gets through his money and at the present rate he's going to need a lot more. We hope that's going to be our trump card in getting Manny the fight.,'

So does the boxing world.