By Dan Ambrose: Freddie Roach would like to see Manny Pacquiao fight Juan Manuel Marquez for a third time, according to an interview by Michael Wood at thesweetscience.com. Roach likes the idea, but apparently Top Rank promoter Bob Arum has other ideas for Pacquiao starting with a fight against Antonio Margarito on November 13th.

And after that, Arum would like to put together a fight between Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. in early 2011. Arum has failed twice already in trying to negotiate a fight between the two super stars of the sport.

Arum wants Marquez to prove himself before he permits Pacquiao to fight Marquez for a third time. Marquez has to beat someone like Andre Berto or Joshua Clottey before Arum will take interest in putting Pacquiao with Marquez.

It’s kind of unfair, though, because Pacquiao hasn’t proven himself that he can beat a fighter like Berto, and here Arum is saying that Marquez has to prove that he can beat him just to get a fight with Pacquiao.

But whether Arum is interested in arranging for Pacquiao to fight Marquez or not, Roach really likes the idea of Pacquiao fighting Marquez again. Roach says “I don’t care about the weight, if Marquez feels he can fight and beat Manny, I think that fight sells, does the most business. Manny can still make 140, we could fight at a catchweight. Aside from Margarito and Marquez, we’re limited with options…Besides a Floyd fight, a third fight with Marquez is the best one out there.”

It’s too bad that Roach isn’t in charge of selecting who Pacquiao fights, because this would be a great fight if Pacquiao were to fight Marquez for a third time, at least better than Pacquiao vs. Margarito.

The problem is Arum isn’t going to match Pacquiao up with Marquez next nor is he going to put Pacquiao in with Marquez in the fight after that. At best, Marquez might, under the best of circumstances, get a shot at Pacquiao in 2012.

Unfortunately, Marquez will lose that chance if he gets beaten along the way by any of his opponents. Given that Golden Boy Promotions wants to match Marquez against Amir Khan in an effort to build up their young star, it’s likely that Marquez will lose that fight and along with it any chance of getting a third fight against Pacquiao in the future.

There’s always a chance that Marquez won’t take the Khan fight, but he probably will because the money will be better than any other offers that he has out there for him. It’s a fight that Marquez could probably win if he were three or four years younger or a bigger puncher, but he’s going to be too small for Khan in this fight.

Marquez might be better off taking on Joshua Clottey, one of Arum’s fighters, beating him and then getting a third shot against Pacquiao. Arum wants Marquez to fight Clottey and has mentioned him a number of times as a fighter that he would like to see Marquez prove himself against if he wants to fight Pacquiao. It would be a tough fight for Marquez, but probably a more winnable fight than if he were to take on Berto right now.