INQUIRER Sports

LOS ANGELES -- Seated on a chair signing autographs for close friends, Manny Pacquiao paused to ponder a question on what’s next now that his team is scheduled to leave for Nevada’s gambling haven in preparation for the December 6 “Dream Match” against Oscar De La Hoya.

“Relax lang kayo [Just relax],” he said, laughing. “Masyado kayong kinakabahan eh [You’re too uptight].”

Those close to him, though, know how much of a joke that statement really is.

As Team Pacquiao heads off to Nevada, the main problem for the people prepping him for what has been repeatedly described as his biggest fight in the pound-for-pound champ’s career is how to tell the guy to relax.

Heading to Las Vegas, Pacquiao’s trainers said that the remaining days should be dedicated to tapering off.

See, that’s the problem.

“To tell Manny to taper off is hard,” Ariza said. “But we just have to ask him to take things slower, lower the intensity and not push himself too much. That is the most that I can tell him to do -- maybe cut the running in half, turn it to jogging.”

Pacquiao has been known to shift into high gear every time he trains for a fight, no matter how close fight night is. American trainer Freddie Roach has voiced out in the past how the four-division champion has to be restrained during training sessions.

“You say he has to hit the bags for two minutes, he adds another minute to it,” Roach had previously said.

But Ariza, Pacquiao’s strength and conditioning coach who replaced Justin Fortune, hopes he can sell the need to taper off to Pacquiao.

“Sometimes I can talk to him and if I can explain to him the why and how the muscle recovers, and how it gets stronger that way, he listens,” he said. “I think he trusts me so he’ll listen.”

Pacquiao has already 159 rounds of sparring under his belt and he is expected to hike that number by four more rounds as he spars one last time Monday, just before leading a multi-vehicle convoy to the neon-bathed desert gambling haven. That’s the most number of sparring rounds Pacquiao has ever undergone in preparation for a fight.

The Filipino boxing icon did take a day off from training Sunday and stayed mostly at his Palazzo residence in La Brea area here after hearing mass early in the morning.

But his trainers do not expect that relax mode to last very long.

“Manny’s the only fighter who can dictate how hard he wants to push himself,” Ariza said. “If he wants to, just to prove a point, he can push himself 110 percent a hundred percent of the time. It’s bizarre to see someone being able to adjust the intensity level the way he does.”

Ariza has penciled Pacquiao to be at 95 percent a week before fight and figures that the reigning WBC lightweight king will peak just at the right time. Pacquiao currently weighs 148 pounds, a pound over the welterweight limit set for this expected blockbuster.

Ariza had earlier tried to insert plyometrics into Pacquiao’s routine. Plyometrics is an exercise that enhances an athlete’s ability to perform sudden muscle movements such as punches and jumps. But it was clear Pacquiao was responding differently to the exercise.

“We took out some of the leg routines, it wasn’t working for him,” Ariza said. “Plyometrics is a hard thing and it takes a while to get used to [it] and I think they might have gotten a little scared.

“Freddie and I thought he was going to work through it, but they did not want to risk it so we went with the things Manny was used to. [We retained] the speed work and the drills like that -- to maintain the quickness.”

De la Hoya is also scheduled to make the Las Vegas trip on Monday, meaning both fighters will reach the gambling capital of the world at about the same time. De La Hoya, however, is expected to make his presence felt only on Tuesday.

Team Pacquiao will convoy to Vegas 357 lbs lighter than before after 24 members of his staff lost an average of 14.8 lbs each in response to the Pacman’s challenge to lose weight in exchange for cash incentives, according to Dr. Allan Recto.

All in all, Pacquiao paid off $74,000 in cash as bonuses to those who lost 10 pounds or more, or an average of $207 per pound lost, recto revealed.