By Chris Williams: Unless the proposed November fight between Juan Manuel Marquez and Manny Pacquiao is held at 135 pounds, the weight that Marquez currently fights at, he has little to no chance of beating the now bigger Pacquiao. A fight between the two won’t be competitive with Pacquiao having a big weight advantage over the smaller Marquez. In 2004 and 2008, Marquez and Pacquiao fought in two competitive fights.

However, Pacquiao has packed on 10 pounds of muscle since then and regularly fights near 147. Marquez can’t fight that high without slowing down. He wanted a rematch with Pacquiao years ago at lightweight, but Pacquiao and Marquez were unable to agree on the pay cut. Now it looks like they’re finally going to fight, albeit at 147. Even if there is a catchweight involved in this fight, it won’t really be a competitive match-up unless the catchweight involves Pacquiao coming down to very near 135.

Marquez simply can’t fight at 140 and above. We saw that in the Floyd Mayweather Jr. fight and the same thing will happen if Marquez is forced to fight Pacquiao at or close to 147 in this talked about fight. It’s too bad it looks like Pacquiao will have another mismatch on his hands. Like his disappointing fight against 39-year-old Shane Mosley last weekend, the fight will be a success in terms of pay-per-view buys but a likely disappointment for boxing fans expecting to see a competitive fight.

The problem here is that Pacquiao has grown and Marquez, soon to be 38, has only gotten older and not bigger. I think this is no longer a good fight if you want to have an entertaining bout for fans. Pacquiao would be better off facing Victor Ortiz, the WBC welterweight champion, or one of the other top welterweights in the division. Unfortunately, that’s probably not going to happen because Ortiz is a hard puncher and isn’t a well known enough fighter yet.

Marquez is being considered next because he brings in more fans than guys like Timothy Bradley and Zab Judah, the two other fighters that Bob Arum is considering to match Pacquiao up with next. The Marquez fight will make money but unless the fight is held at 135 or very close to it, it will be another Mosley-esque fight.