By Dan Ambrose: Alex Ariza, the strength and conditioning trainer for Manny Pacquiao, is concerned about his weight. He wants Pacquiao’s weight to be closer to the 151 pound catchweight, according to an article by Ronnie Nathanielsz at Inquirer.net. Pacquiao currently weighs 146 lbs, despite being power fed six times a day to keep his weight artificially high for his bout with Antonio Margarito on November 13th.

The increased weight has caused Pacquiao’s hand speed and sparring to be affected, and this makes Pacquiao’s main trainer Freddie Roach unhappy. It’s unclear how much of a difference a mere five bouts would make for Pacquiao in the Margarito bout, because if he can’t beat him at this weight, then he probably wouldn’t at 151 either.

Pacquiao is now sparring smaller sparring partners compared to when he was in the Philippines for the first part of his training camp. With less than two weeks to go before his fight with Margarito, it’s doubtful that Ariza can do much in increasing Pacquiao’s weight in a major way without putting on useless fat on his small 5’6” frame.

Ariza says “It’s too late. We can’t change anything in the next ten days.” Pacquiao might already be hurt by the weight that he’s put on for the fight, because he doesn’t look better now that he’s put on more weight. He might be better off if he were to take even more weight off in the next two weeks.

However, even with taking weight off, Pacquiao won’t be able to strip off very much in that short of a time span. Ariza and Roach may have to face the sad facts that this is about as good as Pacquiao can look for the Margarito fight.

Pacquiao still hasn’t sparred with Vanes Martirosyan and Peter Quillin, says Nathanielsz. Roach might not let Pacquiao spar with either of them due to the risk of injury to Pacquiao because of their size, speed and power.