By Chris Williams: Strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza thinks that Manny Pacquiao (54-4-2, 38 KO’s) is looking really good in his sparring sessions as he gets prepared for his fourth fight against Juan Manuel Marquez (54-6-1, 39 KO’s) next month in Las Vegas, Nevada on December 8th.

Ariza said to the Manilastandardtoday.com “[Pacquiao] was amazing. A beast. On a scale of 1 to 10, I’d give him a 10…There is a different Manny for sure.”

I guess you could say that the theme for the 33-year-old Pacquiao’s training camp for his fourth fight with Marquez is to try and get back to Pacquiao’s lost youth to try and find his old form that he’s lost in the three years. Pacquiao hasn’t really shined physically since his fight with Miguel Cotto in 2009. Pacquiao is still able to perform in training camp and impress his trainer Freddie Roach and strength trainer Roach. But when it comes to his actual fights, Pacquiao is only able to fight in brief spurts and needs constant rest breaks.

Roach says Pacquiao’s problems are distractions that has caused him not to be at his best, but it’s hard to imagine that distractions could last for three years because that’s long it’s been since Pacquiao really looked good in the ring.

Roach and Ariza obviously want to keep the Pacquiao train going for as long as possible but it looks like there’s going to be time in the near future where he’ll no longer be winning fights unless his promoter Bob Arum starts scaling down his opposition to find more beatable opponents for him. We may be seeing that in Pacquiao’s fight this April because there’s talk that Pacquiao will fight Arum’s Top Rank stable fighter Brandon Rios, who isn’t even a welterweight.

If Pacquiao can’t win that fight and if he loses to Marquez next month then Arum is going to have to really start digging deep to find some weaker guys for Pacquiao to beat.