By Dan Ambrose: Trainer Emanuel Steward feels that the extra weight that 38-year-old Juan Manuel Marquez is forced to put on to take this fight against WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao will hurt him and cause him possibly lose on November 12th.

The Pacquiao-Marquez fight will take place at a 144 lb catchweight, which isn’t much of a catchweight advantage for Marquez when you look at how badly he fought the last time he bulked up to that high for his fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. two years ago.

Speaking with eastsideboxing.com, Steward said “The difference I see right now this time is physically. I believe Manny is bigger and will have the strength and size advantage, even though they might weight in similar. Based on the fight Marquez had with Floyd, it just sows coming in at 142 or 144 didn’t fit well on his [Marquez] frame. It’s like trying to put a Mac truck on a Volkswagen frame. It just doesn’t work.”

Steward is right. Marquez doesn’t have the frame to carry at 144 lbs or anything over 140. Pacquiao gets away with it because he’s so fast and speed enables you to get away with a lot more than what slower fighters can do when they put on weight. That’s not to say that Pacquiao hasn’t slowed down because of the weight, because he clearly has.

In looking at Pacquiao recently working out with his trainer Freddie Roach, Pacquiao looked painfully slow when he tried to bounce around the ring like he used to. You could see Pacquiao mentally turning his gears, forcing himself to try and bounce around in between throwing shots but the speed wasn’t there and he looked like someone who had lead in his feet. The weight gain that Pacquiao has put on since moving up from featherweight has really hurt him and in my estimation shorted his career. He’s making more money at welterweight, but the cost is he won’t be fighting too much longer. But he should be able to beat Marquez because mostly due to the added weight that Marquez will be putting on for this fight. It’s going to hurt him more than it already has Pacquiao.