By Chris Williams: Alex Ariza is really happy with how Manny Pacquiao (54-4-2, 38 KO’s) has been looking lately in his sparring sessions in getting ready for Juan Manuel Marquez (54-6-1, 39 KO’s) on December 8th. Ariza thinks he’s seeing more foot and hand speed from the soon to be 34-year-old Pacquiao than what he’s seen from him in a long, long time.

Ariza said to the Manilastandardtoday.com “It’s some of the best sparring I’ve seen from Manny and it’s not just the sparring but the movements that he has and I think his hands and his footwork is almost at a different level that I’ve seen in a long time.”

It would be interesting to know exactly how long it’s been since Ariza saw that kind of speed, movement and sparring from Pacquiao. If it’s been within in the last three years then I think it’s no big deal because Pacquiao has looked less than impressive in his last five bouts dating back to his fight against Joshua Clottey in 2010.

The last time that Pacquiao looked good was in his fight against Migue Cotto dating back to November 2009. That’s exactly three years ago and if Pacquiao has looked good to Ariza since then I have to ignore Ariza’s compliments in training because Pacquiao has not looked good in his actual fights.

If you look at Pacquiao’s fights in the last two years you can see pretty clearly that he can no longer move like he used to. Sure, Pacquiao move like that in sparring but that’s not the same thing as an actual fight. In sparring there’s plenty of rest breaks for the Filipino so that he can catch his breath, but in his fights he’s forced to fight hard for three minutes of every round and he simply can’t do that anymore. Pacquiao only fights in brief spurts now.