By Chris Williams: The November 12th fight between Juan Manuel Marquez and WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao is still three months away and Marquez, 38, already looks to be in fighting shape judging from the photo he took posing with Brandon Rios and Mikey Garcia in Los Angele, California on Tuesday.

Marquez looks lean and youthful compared to Rios, who appears to be out of shape and sporting a little paunch.

This isn’t good news for Pacquiao, because Marquez seems to be taking this fight very seriously by being in such good shape so early on.

Marquez and Pacquiao have fought twice before with the first fight ending up a 12 round draw in 2004, and the second with Pacquiao winning a very controversial 12 round split decision in 2008.

Many top boxers and writers think that Marquez should have won both fights, and was given the shaft. I’m in agreement with that.

I saw Marquez bettering Pacquiao in both fights, but it shows you how difficult it can be to defeat a guy like Pacquiao. You’re not just beating him, you’re beating his popularity as well, and that’s really hard to get past.

Marquez was the better fighter in those two fights. Pacquiao was just the popular guy that got the judges’ decisions. In some ways I think boxing is like professional wrestling unfortunately.

Marquez will have to be on Pacquiao early and take the fight to him to make sure he doesn’t get any momentum. That’s the advice that was given to him by Erik Morales, who defeated Pacquiao in 2005.

I’m sure Marquez really doesn’t need Morales’ advice given that Marquez arguably should have won both fights with Pacquiao. But Morales did a better job against Pacquiao by in his win over him compared to Marquez.

The difference was that Morales threw many more combinations, drove Pacquiao back repeatedly and stayed on his feet. Morales didn’t let Pacquiao knock him down the way that Marquez did in his two fights with him.

Marquez is going to have to stay on his feet in the third fight with Pacquiao because that will give the judges any excuse they need to give the fight Pacquiao.