By Manuel Perez: I don’t know what it is with Manny Pacquiao, but it seems like he’s been a beacon for old and shot fighters in the past few years and I wonder why Pacquiao seems to be selecting a lot of those types. Pacquiao started with Erik Morales, who was totally shot by the time that Pacquiao fought him for a third time. Pacquiao then went and fought a 2nd fight with Marco Antonio Barrera in 2007. Why would Pacquiao need to fight Barrera again when Pacquiao had already beaten him by an 11th round TKO in 2003?

Then Pacquiao goes after the 36-year-old Oscar De La Hoya, who had nothing left by the time that Pacquiao fought him and was also in an almost starved state due to the gyrations that De La Hoya had to do just to get down to the 147 pound weight. What victory is there in fighting an old timer like De La Hoya?

I knew this wasn’t going to be a competitive fight the moment that I first heard that Pacquiao was contemplating the bout. De La Hoya would have destroyed Pacquiao had he been six years younger and not in badly weight drained state at the time of the fight.

If that wasn’t enough, Pacquiao then goes after Ricky Hatton. Again, Hatton was another fighter whom had seen his best days in the boxing ring years ago and was only a shadow of his former self. Hatton was a great little fighter four or five years ago, but his weight issues that he’d been experiencing in the past several years did a number on Hatton’s once great talent and made him susceptible to even lesser fighters like Juan Lazcano.

Beating Hatton at this point in his career wasn’t such a big deal because Hatton would have probably been beaten by a half dozen of the top light welterweights in the division. So when is Pacquiao going to start fighting some young able bodied fighters that aren’t shot or over the hill?

That’s what I’d like to know, because when that time comes – if it ever does – I think Pacquiao is going to get the beating of his life. There has been talk of Pacquiao fighting Floyd Mayweather Jr. I don’t see that happening. Something will go wrong and Pacquiao will go in a different direction.

Don’t get me wrong, I’d more than like to see Pacquiao fight Mayweather, but I doubt he will. Mayweather is too dangerous of a fighter, and I imagine that Freddie Roach, Pacquiao’s trainer, can see that for himself and he’ll want to steer Pacquiao away from him to someone easier like Oscar Larios or a David Diaz type opponent.

The fighter that Pacquiao needs to be fighting is Juan Manuel Marquez, who twice fought Pacquiao and both times was given the receiving end of some bad scores. The first fight was a draw, but should have been a win for Marquez.

And in the second fight, Marquez lost by a 12-round split decision in a fight that Marquez looked to have easily won by two to three rounds. Marquez is going to be fighting Mayweather next, and I can see Marquez winning that fight due to his better talent and counter punching ability. I don’t think that Pacquiao will be facing Marquez if he comes out the winner.