By Chris Williams: Fight negotiations between Manny Pacquiao (54-4-2, 38 KO’s) and 39-year-old Juan Manuel Marquez (54-6-1, 39 KO’s) are reportedly almost complete for a fight that will be taking place on December 8th in Las Vegas, Nevada. an announcement is expected soon, possibly this week. It was thought that Pacquiao might opt to take it easy by sitting out for the remainder of 2012 in order to come in rested for a big money bout against Floyd Mayweather Jr. in early 2013.

However, it looks like Pacquiao has decided to take the fight with Marquez instead of resting up.

It’s a gamble for the 33-year-old Pacquiao, because he lost his last fight to Tim Bradley last June, and he deserved to lose his fight before that against Marquez last June. What we’re looking at is a fighter that should have lost his last two fights going into what promises to be an incredibly tough rematch against Marquez. You can forget about Marquez’s advanced age, he’s probably the younger fighter of the two in terms of physical age. Marquez is someone that has aged really slowly compared to Pacquiao, and appears to be fighting on a higher level than the Filipino right now.

It’s a big gamble for Pacquiao to be taking on Marquez, because he’s got to not only beat him but he’s got to do it without the controversy that has surrounded Pacquiao’s last three fights with Marquez. If Pacquiao wants the Mayweather fight, he has to badly beat Marquez this time. Pacquiao can’t squeak out a close decision and expect to get the Mayweather fight unless Pacquiao is willing to accept less than a 50-50 deal. You know he won’t accept that, so there’s a ton of pressure on Pacquiao to convincingly beat Marquez this time around.

The odd man out of the equation is Bradley, who obviously deserves the Pacquiao rematch after beating him last June. But if Pacquiao and his promoter Bob Arum aren’t eager to get back in the ring with Bradley then what can you do? Bradley is just going to have to move on and look to defend his World Boxing Organization 147 pound title against someone else. Pacquiao will be back sooner or later to fight Bradley, because Bradley’s one of Arum’s Top Rank stable fighters and he only so many options in his stable to put Pacquiao in with. It’ll be Marquez first, and after Pacquiao wins another controversial decision, he’ll then likely fight Bradley after that.

Pacquiao won’t be able to get a Mayweather fight off of another highly questionable win over Marquez. That’ll leave only Bradley and Miguel Cotto for Pacquiao to fight. Since Cotto isn’t interested in draining down to 150 lbs to fight Pacquiao at a catchweight, it’ll leave the Filipino with no other choice but to fight Bradley again.