By Chris Williams: Manny Pacquiao’s personal strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza believes that Pacquiao will be fighting WBC interim welterweight champion Robert Guerrero (31-1-1, 18 KO’s) in the near future and he thinks Pacquiao will beat him.

Ariza told the Manilastandardtoday.com “The Ghost [would be] a good fight but Manny can handle the guy.”

I don’t know that Pacquiao can. I would have agreed with Ariza before seeing Guerrero fight last Saturday night in beating former IBF/WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto by an easy 12 round decision, but now I’m extremely doubtful that Pacquiao could beat Guerrero because this guy throws a lot of punches and he never stops coming. He’s a good inside fighter too, and he’d take the fight to Pacquiao and outwork him. Pacquiao showed problems in his last couple of fights in working the full three minute rounds. If he can’t do that against Guerrero then he’ll get outworked and beaten up just as Berto did. Berto’s eyes were both almost closed by the end of the fight, and he looked like a sorry sight.

Guerrero is rumored to have given Pacquiao a lot of problems in a sparring session they had. I know it’s just sparring but sometimes when a fighter gets the better of another one in sparring they’re able to duplicate those efforts in an actual fight.

If Pacquiao is going to fight Guerrero he’s going to have to do it soon before Guerrero fights someone like Floyd Mayweather Jr. and takes a loss. That’s a fight that Golden Boy Promotions are going to be looking to make real soon, and unless Pacquiao and Top Rank beat Mayweather to the punch then they’ll miss out on the Guerrero fight. I’d much rather see Pacquiao fight Guerrero at this point than seeing him fight Juan Marquez Marquez over and over again or Miguel Cotto. I don’t want to see Pacquiao fight either of those guys ever again.