By Chris Williams: Strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza is trying to get his pupil Manny Pacquiao (54-4-2, 38 KO’s) back to the physical form that he had years ago in getting the soon to be 34-year-old Pacquiao ready for his fourth – and hopefully his last – fight with 39-year-old Juan Manuel Marquez (54-6-1, 39 KO’s) on December 8th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Ariza told the Manilastandardtoday.com that Pacquiao should “stick to the little things that he plans on doing the next couple of weeks. We should see some big, big changes.”

Ariza doesn’t say what these “little things” are and one can only guess what particular exercises that Ariza is putting him through that’s going to turn back the hands of time to put Pacquiao back to his youth. I don’t think it’s possible to be honest. Once a fighter is on the path of aging you can’t reverse it simply by making them work harder, rest more and whatever else you put them through.

Pacquiao’s last three performances suggest that he’s slowing down physically. What Ariza should be doing is working on trying to build up Pacquiao’s endurance by taking him on long runs and getting his weight down to the 130s. That’s where he needs to be.

When you start to age you got to get light as possible so that weary legs don’t have to carry around all that weight. Pacquiao is already been having leg cramp problems for a while now. Ariza should see that as a hint that Pacquiao is carrying around too much weight for his short legs to carry without problems. I think Pacquiao can down to the low 130s without it negatively affecting him.

Pacquiao and his trainer Freddie Roach feel they need to KO Marquez to win this fight. That’s not realistic and it’s surprising that both of them are talking like this because it’s not likely to happen. Pacquiao should be trying to work on winning rounds so that he doesn’t wind up getting out-boxed for a fourth time.

Boxing fans in high numbers already think he lost the last three fights against Marquez, and it’s impossible to watch those fights without seeing Marquez as the guy that won almost every round of those fights. This tells me that Pacquiao needs to work on his boxing skills because trying to knock Marquez out every fight obviously isn’t working.