By Chris Williams: Strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza is quite pleased with how Manny Pacquiao’s recent sparring sessions are going as the days wind down towards his fourth meeting with Juan Manuel Marquez at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada on December 8th.

Ariza said to the manilastandardtoday.com “[Pacquiao] looks great. He has never looked bad in sparring…Looked sharp, looked in great condition and threw a lot of punches.”

So what else is new? Pacquiao always looks good in his sparring sessions, but in his actual fights nowadays where Pacquiao is starting to struggle. His ability to fight hard, throw a lot of punches, move around the ring, and cut off the ring appear to be drastically down from what they once were back in 2009 and before. We’ve all heard the excuses about Pacquiao having marital problems, as well as the old leg cramp excuses. However, these excuses don’t fly if it’s more than one fight. They can’t be used indefinitely.

Pacquiao will likely continue to look good in his training camp, but that doesn’t mean jack if he can’t deal with Juan Manuel Marquez’s boxing skills. Marquez has gotten the better of Pacquiao in three straight fights and I can’t see anything changing in that regard now unless Marquez suddenly gets old. He’s 39-years-old, and is six years older than Pacquiao but in his last fight with Pacquiao last November, Marquez appeared to be the younger, stronger fighter for some reason.

That kind of thing happens in life. You can have a fighter that is six years younger than another fighter, but still look considerably older. Chronological age frequently doesn’t mean much because people age at different rates, and Marquez appears to be aging a lot slower than Pacquiao right now.

Freddie Roach is going to try and have Pacquiao beat Marquez by throwing a lot of punches to overwhelm him. Those won’t work and I don’t know why Roach doesn’t come up with some new strategies for the Filipino to use because that one is already a fail. Marquez has kept it from working by interrupting his combinations by tagging him in the head. Pacquiao doesn’t like to get hit and this causes him to back off, and ruining Roach’s plans of overwhelming Marquez.