Pacquiao vs Marquez IV: Juan Manuel aiming for KO on Dec. 8

Juan Manuel Marquez says he'll be trying for a knockout on December 8, when he faces Manny Pacquiao for a fourth time in Las Vegas.

"This fight, I will try to knock out Manny Pacquiao. There is no way that I can let this fight be a decision, because if I do, everyone knows what will happen. That's because the judges aren't doing their jobs, so I need to train very hard to get the knockout."

Marquez (54-6-1, 39 KO) is getting what should be -- should be, in every way -- his final shot at scoring an official win over Pacquiao (54-4, 38 KO), who has beaten him in exceptionally close fights in 2008 and 2011, and the two went to a draw way back in 2004.

Marquez feels, or at least says he does (and he can claim it, because it's not absurd), that he's won all three fights. So it's easy to see he won't want this one to go to the cards, but like we talked about the other day when he said he'd have a more aggressive attack, this could all backfire in a big way. Marquez has hit the canvas four times against Pacquiao in their fights, and Manny's never gone down.

The power is a Pacquiao advantage, not Marquez. Marquez's advantages over Pacquiao are intelligence and craft and counter-punching. If it becomes a brawl, that would still seem to greatly favor Pacquiao, who isn't the firecracker he once was, but then neither is Marquez.