By Chris Williams: WBC/WBO bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire is picking fellow countryman WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao (53-3-2, 38 KO’s) to stop challenger Juan Manuel Marquez (53-5-1, 39 KO’s) between five to eight rounds when they fight for the third time on November 12th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Donaire sees Marquez as taking the fight to Pacquiao, which he feels will make it easier for Pacquiao to knock him out.

Here’s what Donaire had to say on the Pacquiao-Marquez fight at philstar.com: “Marquez is slower now. He’s even chunkier, but he won’t fight Manny like [Shane] Mosley. Marquez will go out there trying to take out Manny. That’s why it will be a lot more exciting than Manny’s fight against Mosley. Manny won’t have a problem finding Marquez. It’ll be over in five to eight rounds.”

The fight will be taking place at a catchweight of 144 pounds. This could favor Pacquiao because he’s been fighting at welterweight recently while Marquez has been campaigning as a lightweight. However, I’m not so certain that it will help Pacquiao.

By forcing himself to fight at a higher weight than he did earlier in his career the stress of having to maintain a heavier weight and fight bigger fighters with more power seems to slowing Pacquiao down in a big way. Pacquiao can no longer move around with the great speed that he did earlier in his career and seems to have dramatically slowed since his win over Miguel Cotto in 2009.

The speed advantage that Pacquiao will have over Marquez will be negligible. I don’t see speed or size as being a factor in this fight. I also disagree with Donaire in his belief that Marquez will be trying to knock Pacquiao out. Although Marquez has been saying recently that he’s going to have to try to knock Pacquiao out to ensure that he get the win, I don’t think he’ll seriously try to do that.

I see Marquez looking to outbox Pacquiao the same way he did in their previous two fights and having a much easier time doing that because of how much Pacquiao has slowed down. I think Marquez is going to make Pacquiao look silly by counter punching him all night long and exposing Pacquiao’s limited boxing skills. Marquez has got Pacquiao’s number, and will continue his domination of him in this fight.