By Chris Williams: WBC president Jose Sulaiman thinks that Manny Pacquiao will triumph in his fight coming up against Juan Manuel Marquez on December 8th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Marquez, who recently turned down fighting for one of Sulaiman’s straps for this fight, has fought well enough to deserve decision victories in the past three fights with the Filipino, but the judges have seen things differently and given him two losses and a draw.

Sulaiman said the following about Pacquiao-Marquez fight at the Manilastandardtoday.com “[Pacquiao should emerge as the winner] if he takes the fight seriously. [Marquez] Didn’t look good at all in his last fight [against Serhiy Fedchenko last April] in Mexico City months ago against a mediocre fighter.”

Marquez beat Fedenchenko, a very defensive fighter, by a lopsided 12 round unanimous decision by the scores of 118-110, 118-110 and 119-109. In contrast, Pacquiao LOST his last fight to Tim Bradley by a 12 round split decision last June. So who’s not looking good? Marquez wins his fight easily, while Pacquiao looked really bad and loses to Bradley.

I think Pacquiao takes all his fights seriously, and I didn’t really understand that comment from Sulaiman. If you looked at Pacquiao’s preparation for this last fight with Marquez as well as his preparation for the Bradley, Pacquiao worked really hard during both training camps. It looked to me like Pacquiao took both training camps very seriously.

The difference here seemed to be that he looks like he’s lost a half dozen steps due to age and his many battles in the ring. You don’t take those kinds of head shots that Pacquiao has been taking from top world class athletes without it having some negative affects on you. Pacquiao has been taking things seriously but he just looks like he’s slowing down.

I see the Pacquiao-Marquez fight being no different from their three previous ones. Marquez will outclass Pacquiao for 12 rounds, and then the judges will likely give Pacquiao the win, while the boxing fans at ringside and home will pretty much unanimously see Marquez as the winner.