By Chris Williams: In his last four fights, WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao (54-3-2, 38 KO’s) has suddenly started to show his age. He no longer jumps around the ring like he did two years ago; he no longer is able to get away from shots thrown his way, and he no longer can fight with the stamina and aggression that he once had not too long ago.

If you look at the heaving that Pacquiao was doing after only four rounds of his last fight against 38-year-old Juan Manuel Marquez, it was if the ages of the two fighters were reversed. Pacquiao looked like an old 40-year-old and the picture of the fight was the gasping for air that Pacquiao was doing in between rounds. Pacquiao won that fight with the judges in Vegas, but precious few boxing fans actually agreed with that decision. And Pacquiao has a win that has been largely ignored by boxing fans and seen as a loss.

The excuses have been flying ever since the Marquez fight about Pacquiao was having leg cramps in the fight and that’s why he looked so old and decrepit. But the problem is Pacquiao has been sporting those same leg cramps for the past four fights, so what’s going on there? Is that leg cramps or just plain old age starting to show signs on boxing’s cash cow just when things were going so good for him.

In 2012, I think Pacquiao is going to continue his downward slide off the top of the mountain as he becomes more and more mediocre with every fight he takes. I don’t really know what can arrest this deterioration in his game because it’s a product of aging and the wear and tear from his recent fights against stronger punchers like Miguel Cotto, Joshua Clottey, Antonio Margarito, Shane Mosley and Juan Manuel Marquez. Pacquiao may not have been hit a lot in the Mosley and Clottey fights, but the accumulation of those fights in addition to the Margarito, Cotto and Marquez fights, where Pacquiao did get hit a lot, has caused him to slow down and start to fade as a fighter.

I honestly think the only way that Pacquiao can disguise his deterioration is if his promoter Bob Arum gets back to putting him in with some of his Top Rank stable fighters. If Arum spends the better part of 2012 matching Pacquiao with Timothy Bradley and a no longer at his best Cotto, I think Pacquiao can have a brief resurgence in his ability. It’ll be like a shot in the arm of adrenalin to have some guys that are tailor made for Pacquiao to fight.