By Chris Williams: Angel Hernandez, the strength and conditioning trainer for Juan Manuel Marquez, feels that Manny Pacquiao is reluctant to face the 38-year-old Marquez again because of the vast improvements in speed and power that Marquez made from the last time he fought him in 2008 to their recent bout last November where Marquez gave Pacquiao a beating and appeared to be the better fighter.

Hernandez told RingTV “The training that we did and all the training that we’ve done had a tremendous positive impact on the fight. That’s one of the reasons why Pacquiao is kind of unsure whether he wants to fight Marquez again.“

Hernandez is right. Pacquiao has been carefully matched the last couple of years and put in with guys that are made for him like Ricky Hatton, Miguel Cotto, Antonio Margarito, Joshua Clottey and 40-year-old Shane Mosley. Those are for the most part sluggers every one of them. Mosley could box a little in his prime but by the time Pacquiao fought him, Mosley was at least two solid years past his prime, maybe even more than that.

Pacquiao didn’t look happy in there with Marquez countering his every move and hitting him with hard shots. You could actually see Pacquiao thinking after a while before letting his hands go, whereas in the past it was second nature for him to throw his shots. Pacquiao was being taught in the ring by Marquez in that fight, as each time Pacquiao would throw something, Marquez would swat him like he was a disobedient pupil. After a while, Pacquiao stopped throwing as many punches and fell into Marquez’s pace not punching enough.

I seriously doubt Pacquiao will want any part of facing Marquez again even if Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum starts whispering Marquez’s name in Pacquiao’s ear for his next fight. Instead, Pacquiao will likely take either Timothy Bradley or Lamont Peterson. Neither of them can punch and Pacquiao might be able to beat one of them in a convincing manner and look good for a change. It’s been a while since Pacquiao looked good, so he needs a weaker puncher to get things back in order for him.