Manny Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach made it clear his sights are set firmly on Floyd Mayweather Jr as the next opponent for his superstar charge.

Pacquiao took his record to 50-3-2 (38 KOs) and cemented his claim as the pound-for-pound champion when he stopped WBO welterweight champion Miguel Cotto in the 12th round in Las Vegas on Saturday night.

With Pacquiao having already taken the scalps of big-name fighters including Oscar De La Hoya and Ricky Hatton the stage has been set for mega fight against undefeated Mayweather, 40-0 (25 KOs).

The big-mouth American returned to the ring to out-point Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez after a short retirement following his tenth round knockout of Hatton in December 2007.

However, Mayweather’s inactivity has led him to fall from the rankings which can only be settled with a super-fight with the Filipino. Mayweather stated publicly that he would only fight Pac Man if he secured the lion’s share of the purse, but Pacquiao was reluctant to discuss such matters after his hard fought victory over Puerto Rican Cotto.

"My job is to fight in the ring and I think that depends on [Top Rank's Bob] Arum my promoter to negotiate that fight," Pacquiao said.

"I'm just going to take a vacation first and spend time with my family and have fun."

Pacquiao’s trainer Roach was more outspoken on the subject knowing that it was the subject on everyone’s lips following the victory.

"The whole world wants to see him fight Mayweather and I want Mayweather," Roach said.

Hall of fame trainer Emanuel Steward was at ringside for Pacquiao-Cotto as a pundit for US broadcaster HBO and like Roach, there was only one logical next step for the 30-year-old Filipino.

"There's no doubt you have to go with Mayweather," Steward said on air. "When you have a fight that's been made by the public more than the fighters, that's what happened with Tommy Hearns and Sugar Ray Leonard. The public said we want that fight to happen and that's why it happened.

"I think they'll come together on the money but it's going to be a very intriguing fight because Floyd's a technical fighter. He knows how to wait back and box a little bit and it's going to be a lot different than it was against a guy who comes forward and is not that great on his defence.

"But I think it will happen, it's just a case of when and who gets what in terms of money. I think it should be a 50-50. Manny has earned his position as an attraction and to me not just as pound-for-pound but as one of the all-time greats. I'd put him up there with the Ray Robinsons and Alis."

Having gone down to a second defeat in 16 months, 29-year-old Cotto (34-2, 27 KOs) insisted he still had a future in the ring: "I will continue fighting”.