By Jim Dower: Leonard Ellerbe, the adviser for Floyd Mayweather Jr., is denying that Mayweather will be starting negotiations with World Boxing Organization welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao on Tuesday, according to an interview of Ellerbe by writer David Mayor of the Grand Rapids Press. Earlier today, Pacquiao’s trainer, Freddie Roach, told the Associated Press, that negotiations for a Mayweather-Pacquiao fight would begin tomorrow on Tuesday for a mega fight, which he thinks will take place in November.

Ellerbe, however, is saying different tune, telling Mayo, “Ain’t nobody thinking about Manny Pacquiao, Bob Arum or Freddie Roach. Floyd isn’t thinking about none of them, and there ain’t no negotiations starting, period. Floyd is just coming off a great win. He’s not thinking about any of them.” It’s interesting how things have changed in one fight. Back before Pacquiao fought Joshua Clottey in March, it was Mayweather who was eager for a fight against Pacquiao. Roach, at the time, seemed to care less about a fight between Pacquiao and Mayweather, and took a tough stand on the random drug tests that Mayweather was asking for before he would fight Pacquiao. Now Roach has seemed eager for a fight between Mayweather and Pacquiao all of a sudden.

So what has changed? Well, for starters Mayweather looked sensational in defeating Shane Mosley by a one-sided 12 round decision on May 1st. That fight has gone a long ways towards making a lot of boxing fans feel that Mayweather is the best fighter in the sport. The reason is simple. He dominated Mosley, a very good fighter, and made him look overmatched out of his league. This is the second good fighter that Mayweather has done this to in the past year. He previously beat Juan Manuel Marquez by a lopsided 12 round decision last September in his first fight back from a 2 year retirement.

Ellerbe says “Who are they negotiating with, themselves?” It looks like Roach was getting ahead of himself in talking about negotiations that don’t yet exist between Mayweather and Pacquiao. Ellerbe is saying that Mayweather made $40 million of the Mosley fight alone. If he’s making that kind of money, Mayweather might not need to go through the hassle of putting together a fight with Pacquiao, especially if it means more trouble over the random drug tests that Mayweather wants and Pacquiao doesn’t.