By Jason Kim: Alex Ariza, the strength and conditioning coach for Manny Pacquiao, really doesn’t want Manny to fight 39-year-old Shane Mosley next. Ariza, like a lot of other people, doesn’t see this as a competitive fight for Pacquiao, and would much prefer that he face Juan Manuel Marquez instead. Ariza goes so far as to say that Pacquiao would only have to train for a week in order to beat Mosley.

In an article at Examiner.com, Ariza says “I don’t like Shane Mosley. He quit against Mayweather. It’s hard enough to get Manny motivated to train for a fight. Now you’re going to put Mosley in front of us. I could stay at home for that fight. We’d train for a week; Play some basketball, get Manny back a couple times, and boom, go in there and fight. It would be easy.”

Mosley end up getting selected for Pacquiao by his promoter Bob Arum. He doesn’t seem to go along with the normal flow of who people think Pacquiao should fight a lot of the time. The one fighter that Arum is in agreement with other fans that Pacquiao should fight is Floyd Mayweather Jr., but that’s a bout that will be difficult to make. Mosley might be the best option for Pacquiao and Arum right now. Juan Manuel Marquez, who Ariza really likes, might not even make it through his next fight in one piece on November 27th against WBO lightweight interim champion Michael Katsidis. Marquez could be taken out of the equation with that one fight. I don’t think Marquez will get the fight with Pacquiao barring a miracle. Arum simply isn’t mentioning him enough to see this as a serious alternative for Pacquiao.

I wonder if Ariza realizes how good Mosley used to be? He’s an exercise trainer, not a regular boxing trainer and he speaks like he has tons of experience. Things may change dramatically for Ariza once Pacquiao retires. Freddie Roach’s best fighters are Amir Khan, Vanes Martirosyan and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., and none of those guys appear to be anything close to being as good as Pacquiao. Ariza might be in for a shock once Pacqiiao is gone. Khan, Chavez and Martirosyan will do well as long as they’re matched carefully, but Khan may be about to be exposed again when he faces Marcos Maidana, and Chavez Jr. will likely get destroyed by Miguel Cotto, if he decides to take the fight. Martirosyan would have huge problems against James Kirkland, Alfredo Angulo, Erislandy Lara and Paul Williams.