INQUIRER Sports

LAS VEGAS - Time to take it easy before the big night.

With Manny Pacquiao just a few practice days from being in perfect form, trainer Freddie Roach on Monday closed camp at Wild Card gym knowing his ward doesn’t need to do any heavy lifting in training as he prepares for the Nov. 14 bout against Miguel Cotto.

“We’ve slowed down here, we’ll slow down in Vegas,” said Roach just hours before joining a long convoy of vehicles that made the 300-mile road trip to this neon-painted desert haven in Nevada.

“We’ll use the mitts and go to the game plan mentally,” Roach added. “[We’ll] just physically walk through [the strategy] in the ring; make sure everybody’s in the same page and fight the perfect fight.

“We’re ready to go.”

Pacquiao sparred four more rounds Monday, hiking his total of simulated matches logged at 153. Here, aside from mitts, Pacquiao is expected to do mainly road work and lung-building exercises.

“We had a good sparring, nice and loose,” said Roach.

Roach has watched video of Cotto every single day during training camp and he and Pacquiao have already cooked up the strategy to defeat the Puerto Rican, who will be staking his WBO welterweight belt on fight night.

And if Pacquiao fights the perfect fight and snatches the belt, he will become the first boxer to win world crowns in seven different weight categories.

Conditioning coach Alex Ariza said Pacquiao is physically ready for the challenge and mentally, Roach said his ward has the strategy down pat.

“He knows the game plan better than me at this point,” Roach admitted. “He’s one step ahead of me at all times. I’m really happy. We’re ready to go.”