by Ronnie Nathanielsz

"Fighter of the Decade" Manny Pacquiao hammered his sparring partner, welterweight  Anthony "Rocky" Marcial, in his first session and forced Marcial to quit.

Pacquiao's friend since his amateur days in General Santos City told BoxingScene.com/Manila Standard that Pacquiao has been training diligently every day, joging in the mornings and working out at his gym in the afternoons with childhood friend Restituto "Buboy" Fernandez, and also playing basketball to help improve his physical condition.

Golingan said Pacquiao appears to be "very serious and is training hard and looks good" in preparation for his fourth fight with Juan Manuel Marquez at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on December 8.

He said Marcial quit after a series of rapid-fire, power punches from Pacquiao who appeared to be too strong and too quick for Marcial who seemed to be out of shape.

A promising fighter Marcial has an impressive record of 18 wins, 17 by knockout with only one defeat at the hands of hard-hitting Jack Asis when he suffered a 3rd round TKO at the Cebu Coliseum on May 28, 2009.

Top Rank promoter Bob Arum, who was peeved over Pacquiao's failure to keep his commitment to arrive in Los Angeles and begin training at Freddie Roach's Wild Card Gym on October 15, said Pacquiao is now scheduled to leave for the US on October 27 which is what the Standard reported a couple of weeks ago.

Marquez the WBO junior welterweight champion has also begun sparring at his training camp in Mexico City under the watchful eye of Hall-of-Fame trainer Ignacio "Nacho" Beristain.

Boxingscene.com quoted Beristain who said "Juan and I met to outline the roadmap to follow. We agreed that [today] we'll begin the hard work for this fight. [Today] we will start boxing with sparring partners, and do a total of six rounds."

Beristain expects Marquez to spar a total of 120 rounds in the buildup to the showdown with Pacquiao. Beristain told boxingscene.com  it is "more than enough to get him (Marquez) in great condition."

The respected trainer said he had recruited two southpaws to spar with Marquez for several days. They are lightweight Daniel Santillio who has a record of 4-1 with 4 knockouts and Ramses Rodriguez after which another two southpaws will take over.