BAGUIO CITY: Boxing coach Freddie Roach said Tuesday that world pound-for-pound champion Manny Pacquiao is in good shape and looks like he’s ready to fight World Boxing Organization (WBO) welterweight champion Miguel Cotto this coming Saturday. “He is very sharp and as if his fight is on Saturday,” Roach said of Pacquaio after their training at the Sub Heads-Up Gym at the Cooyesan Plaza Hotel here.

Roach and crew of the Wild Card Gym arrived in Baguio Tuesday and immediately trained Pacquiao for more or less two hours.

“The way we understood each other, it’s no longer teaching him. If there’s a better way to do it, he would tell. We don’t force anything to him now, we negotiate,” he said.

Pacquiao, who has a 49-3-2 record 37 knockouts, will fight Cotto, 34-1 with 27 KOs at an agreed catchweight of 145 pounds at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on November 14.

Roach said the gym they are using is beautiful and the first-class, and that he has no problem with the available equipment.

Anson Tiu, the gym owner, said Monday they spent P100,000 to upgrade the facility and equipment even before Team Pacquiao arrived in Baguio City.

It was the same gym where world champion Nonito “The Flash” Donaire trained before his fight against Rafael Concepcion of Panama on August 15. Donaire won via unanimous decision.

Roach said they will train in Baguio for five and a half weeks and two and a half weeks in Las Vegas instead in Los Angeles to allow Pacquiao to recover from jet lag and the altitude.

Baguio is about 5,000 feet above sea level.

Pacquiao said that he is contented with the training facility, adding that the site for his regular morning jogging and exercises in the golf area is much better that the terrain where he jogged in Hollywood, Los Angeles.

“Maganda ang lugar. Maganda ito para sa regular na jogging,”Pacquaio told reporters after inspecting the golf area after he jogged at Burnham Park.

Harley F. Palangchao