By Chris Williams: Manny Pacquiao is coming off of a loss to Tim Bradley last June in which he was only capable of fighting for a tiny fraction of each round, and looked like his feet were stuck in quick drying cement. Pacquiao hasn’t looked mobile or energetic in the ring in ages perhaps dating back to 2009. Age seems to be the problem that is creeping in and robbing Pacquiao of his once great skills.

Pacquiao is going to be fighting Juan Manuel Marque on December 8th, and Pacquiao claims he’s going to use new techniques to beat Marquez in this fight.

Pacquiao said this as quoted by USAToday.com “I want to erase the last fight any doubts. I will focus this time. I have to study and train using new techniques and strategy, and apply techniques never used in my previous fights. I will fight and train like the old Manny, the 25-year-old Manny.”

Pacquiao seems to be saying different things here. He’s talking about using new techniques to beat Marquez, but then he’s talking fighting and training like he did when he was younger. So which is it? Will it be new stuff or the old training techniques? I think Pacquiao is sounding confused.

In the same interview, Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach is talking about taking Pacquiao back to his old style of fighting where he pressures his opponents constantly. I don’t consider that a new technique if Roach is going to be taking Pacquiao back to his old way of fighting.

Honestly, I think it’s impossible for Pacquiao to fight the way that he used to. Technique has nothing to do with it. The reason Pacquiao stopped fighting all out was because he’s gained weight and slowed down from the combination of the weight and age. He’s not able to jump around the ring like he used to. Roach can plan on having Pacquiao do that in theory, but using in the actual fight against Marquez will prove to impossible unless Pacquiao can go back into a time machine and snatch his body from 2004 and bring it back to 2012 to fight Marquez.

Roach wants Pacquiao fight like he did in the 2004 fight where Pacquiao knocked Marquez down three times in the 1st round. But even if that were possible, what Roach forgets is that Pacquiao got dominated in the last 11 rounds of the fight. He got totally schooled by Marquez after the 1st round and the 12 round draw that was given by the judges was just as controversial as Pacquiao’s two victories over Marquez. I had Marquez easily beating Pacquiao in the first fight, because Pacquiao looked clueless after the 1st round and got schooled worse than Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. did against Sergio Martinez. The second fight in 2008 and the third in 2011 were both cut and dried cases where Marquez should have also been given wins.