By Chris Williams: Manny Pacquiao is continuing with his belief that he can will himself back to the form of his youth when he faces Juan Manuel Marquez on December 8th for the fourth time in their careers. Pacquiao has started to show signs of slowing down and deteriorating in his last three fights, and he wants to try and prove that he’s the same fighter he once was.

Pacquiao said to Yahoo Sports News “I need to be more aggressive. That’s what I’m focusing on now, more motivation and more aggressiveness. That’s the most important thing I had before, when I was 25 or 26 years old…I’m trying to get that back now.”

If that were possible Pacquiao still would have problems with Marquez because he had his hands full in their first fight in 2004 when Marquez dominated the last 11 rounds of the fight after getting knocked down several times in the opening round.

It’s kind of sad to see Pacquiao pining away for his lost youth. It’s too bad Pacquiao doesn’t recognize that it’s over with and that he won’t be going back to 2004 in physical form. For that matter, Pacquiao will never see the way was fighting back in early 2009 ever again. He’s simply aged and no matter how much training he does with his strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza or with trainer Freddie Roach, he’s not going to be able to get back.

Marquez has aged too obviously, and he’s now almost 40. However, Marquez has aged better for some reason, and he’s still fighting a fairly decent level compared to his prime years. He’s not nearly the fighter he once was, but he’s not aged rapidly like Pacquiao suddenly has in the past two years.

If anything, if Pacquiao tries to fight in an aggressive manner against Marquez he’ll only end up overexerting himself and run out of gas or come up with a set up debilitating cramps that force Pacquiao into his customary plod that he now fights in.