By Chris Williams: Manny Pacquiao says he plans on fighting through 2014, and believe it or not he also says he thinks he can match his 2004 pace when he faces Juan Manuel Marquez on December 8th in their 4th fight.

Pacquiao wasn’t really in a talkative mood during today’s telephone conference call. He kept a lot of his answers short and to the point rather than going into details with his answers.

Pacquiao answered simply “Yes” when asked if he can bring back the old Manny of their fight for his rematch with Marquez next month.

I find it hard to believe that Pacquiao can get anywhere close to the form he had in the 2004 fight. In looking at Pacquiao of 2004 and the Pacquiao of 2012 fight, it’s like watching two different guys. Pacquiao now is a little heavier, a little slower, and a lot more flat-footed compared to his earlier form. He doesn’t throw punches like he did back then in 2004 and he looks so exhausted in his fights now compared to back then. In Pacquiao’s last fight against Tim Bradley, it was all he could do to muster up enough energy to fight hard for one minute of the round. It seemed like Pacquiao only put out effort in the last seconds of the round instead of throughout the full three minutes.

Saying he can get back to the 2004 is a huge reach for Pacquiao. He should have aimed a lot lower, like saying he’d like to get back to the 2010 form, which was a big drop off from the way he was looking in 2009. But to say he’s going to try and get to where he was in 2004 is simply a waste of time. It’s not possible as far as I’m concerned. That Pacquiao no longer exists and he shouldn’t even try. He’ll just exhaust himself and get beaten badly.