By Chris Williams: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum took the time to drop by and observe his fighter Manny Pacquiao sparring at the Wildcard Gym in Los Angeles, California and for one of the few times that Arum has seen his fighter he wasn’t entire impressed with what he saw of him. Arum told write Chris Robinson of Examiner.com, Pacquiao “His conditioning is good, but he showed a great deal of rust in his first sparring session. Not slow, just rusty.”

That’s not good because Pacquiao usually looks good when beating on over-matched sparring partners and if Arum is saying Pacquiao isn’t looking good then it’s definitely a cause for concern. We’ve seen Pacquiao slow down dramatically in his last few fights and he’s coming off of a rare loss in his last fight.

Pacquiao was supposed to start his training camp early by coming over to Los Angeles to start training with trainer Freddie Roach, but instead Pacquiao stuck it out in the Philippines where his faithful helper Buboy Fernandez out him through his boxing paces. That may not have been the smartest thing for Pacquiao to do because he looked like an old, slow heavyweight in his last bout and you would think that he’d have come over early to get the work in that he needed.

It’s been several years since Pacquiao really looked good in a fight. I’d say his bout against Miguel Cotto in 2009 was the last time that Pacquiao impressed. He’s been more or less flat-footed since then with his legs either giving him problems or his stamina. Boxing fans have noticed this and are wondering what’s happened to Pacquiao for him to suddenly lose his skills. It looks to me like Pacquiao is aging like all fighters do when they hit their mid-30s. Pacquiao turns 34 in December, and that’s basically 35. It’s not young for a little guy like him.

Marquez is going to be a real problem for Pacquiao and I can see him beating the Filipino on December 8th, especially if he continues to look poor in training. Boxing is a young man’s sport and Pacquiao is starting to show his age now.