By Chris Williams: In a sign that WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao (54-3-2, 38 KO’s) may be feeling very nervous about his upcoming June 9th fight against unbeaten Timothy Bradley (28-0, 12 KO’s), Pacquiao is already training for the fight even with it still many months away. Pacquiao has started pre-training for fight and has Amir Khan joining him. I think Pacquiao may be showing signs of fear.

I guess I don’t blame him if he is, because Bradley is arguably a better fighter than Juan Manuel Marquez, Pacquiao’s last opponent who fought well enough to deserve a victory but who had to settle for another questionable 12 round decision loss. Bradley is every bit as good as Marquez, but better in the speed and work rate department.

That’s bad news for Pacquiao because those are the only areas where he had a slight advantage over Marquez. Bradley pretty much erases most of Pacquiao’s advantages and beats him in other areas like stamina, inside fighting ability and counter punching. Bradley is younger and on the top of his game right now. He’s not like Pacquiao, suffering leg cramps fight after fight. Bradley has zero problems with his legs and will be able to put pressure on Pacquiao all night long without wearing down or having to run from him.

Pacquiao, 33, is starting to show his age and while that’s not considered old for most fighters, it can be for a smaller guy that’s been in a lot of wars. Look Erik Morales. He’s only two years older than Pacquiao, and he’s been showing serious signs of fading for the past two years. Pacquiao is right there at 33, starting to show the ravages of age at the wrong time against the wrong fighter.

So, I guess I can’t blame Pacquiao for starting training early for this fight because he’s got to try and do something or else he’ll get whipped by Bradley.