By Chris Williams: Manny Pacquiao’s strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza sees Pacquiao being too much for the older Juan Manuel Marquez on November 12th in their fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Ariza, not one to keep his thoughts to himself about Pacquiao, had this to say at fighthype.com: “Marquez is going to get wrecked…If he wants to just go in there and go toe to toe and knock this dude out early, he’ll be able to do that. He’ll have the strength and power to do that.”

I think Ariza knows a lot about building strength and bulk for his fighters, but I don’t think he knows boxing at all, period. Pacquiao isn’t going to be able to knock Marquez out, even with Pacquiao having an advantage in weight with Marquez having to move up two weight divisions to take this fight at a teeny catchweight of 144 lbs. Pacquiao still won’t be able to stop the soon to be 38-year-old Marquez.

Pacquiao couldn’t even stop Antonio Margarito, Joshua Clottey and Shane Mosley. What does that tell you about Pacquiao’s power at welterweight? The last time he got a knockout was two years ago against Miguel Cotto, a pumped up light welterweight, and I don’t think that fight should have been stopped in the 12th. Pacquiao isn’t going to be able to stop an even better fighter like Marquez. That’s not happening, and he’s not going to “Wreck” Marquez or any such nonsense like that.

I see this as being pretty much similar to the other two fights between Pacquiao and Marquez, with Marquez making Pacquiao look silly at times with his counter punching. Pacquiao will have his moments but will struggle much more in this fight than he did in the other two because he’s losing his ability move around the ring. Pacquiao is no longer hopping around, and that’s going to hurt him in this fight. If I’m Pacquiao, I’d be on Ariza’s case to find out what happened to my legs. It might help if Pacquiao would stop eating a lot and focus on being lighter. Maybe if he weighed less he’d be able to move like he used to two years ago. I don’t think Pacquiao will ever be able to move like he used to. It looks like he’s aging and the first thing he’s lost is his legs. The next will be his work rate, and then his hand speed. By that time, we might see Pacquiao taking losses if he steps it up against someone like Floyd Mayweather Jr.