These next few days are going to be key when it comes Manny Pacquiao and his boxing future. Will the Filipino icon be allowed to finish his career with one last victory or will he be pushed from the sport that made him, cast forever as a bigoted villain?
On Monday, the multi-division former world champ set off a media chain reaction by sharing his beliefs on homosexuality with Filipino media representatives.
?If we approve male on male, female on female,? Pacquiao asserted, ?then man is worse than animal.”
Pacquiao would apologize for the remark the next day, but then temper the apology by saying that he is merely ?telling the truth.? On Thursday, he would quote a passage from the Bible (Leviticus 20:13) via social media that calls for the death penalty for homosexuals before he (or someone on his team) pulled it down.
Right or wrong, Pacquiao is determined to assert himself on this issue and speak his mind about it whenever given the opportunity. This attitude won?t come without repercussions.
According to promoter Bob Arum, sponsors are already withdrawing from Pacquiao?s April 9 pay-per-view event against Timothy Bradley, putting the entire Pacquiao team in a tough spot?run the show and operate without essential funding or cancel the show and face lawsuits from those still invested.
Nike dumped Pacquiao on Wednesday, issuing the following statement to the press: ?Nike strongly opposes discrimination of any kind and has a long history of supporting and standing up for the rights of the LGBT community? we no longer have a relationship with Manny Pacquiao.?
Even Arum distanced himself a bit from Pacquiao, calling his cash cow?s words ?offensive? and ?reprehensible.?
But in the boxing world, itself, does such a declaration from Pacquiao mean much?
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In terms of morality, boxing is pure Death Valley wasteland. A good portion of the fan base actually supports the outlaw, politically incorrect attitude while others are ambivalent about such concerns. For many, part of the charm of being a boxing fan is in being able to dip their toes in the dark waters at their convenience without actually getting wet, to live the brutish, macho fairy tale from a distance and then be able to step back into polite society. This is the reason that we have seen the boxing fan base routinely pass the buck on efforts aimed at reform and aggressively resist attempts to put the sport back on network TV.
Just from taking a casual look at social media and a few boxing message boards, it seems as though boxing fans are closer to ?meh? than outrage when it comes to Pacquiao?s comments. If anything, the discussion has opened the doors for those looking to support Pacquiao on his views.
However, boxing long ago lost its ability to carry itself solely on the shoulders of its hardcore fans. Events at the truly major level need a degree of mainstream support and this is where we start dealing in those fans enticed by quality fights, but unmoved by the macho 1950?s-like subculture that dominates the die-hard set. These people treat boxing as if it were a real sport and not a he-man muscle flexing club? they will walk away if they are dissatisfied.
The sponsors, too, will walk away if they feel too much heat and they?ll take with them the safety net cash that helps protect the promoter?s assets in case of a PPV/box office flop.
Right now, certain members of Team Pacquiao are crowing about the sponsors who have NOT abandoned Manny. But not hearing from the other companies is hardly an indication that the coast is clear. Most likely, they are waiting to see where the damage control goes before making a move. And if Pacquiao?s idea of proper damage control is posting Biblical calls for gays to be executed, then the heat will keep getting more intense and he WILL lose more support, at least from the companies in the West.
And then how do we get these guys?both mainstream fans and sponsors– back into the boxing business again after being so totally burned with Pacquiao? The cute, lovable, impish, ever-smiling, family-friendly Manny was as close to a slam dunk crossover star as boxing will ever be able to produce at this point. Pacquiao?s stock slipped greatly as one-half of the universally panned ?mega-fight? with Floyd Mayweather and put himself deeper in the hole with ten months of sour grapes and poor sportsmanship after the loss. Revealing himself to be a passive-aggressive, hateful bigot was the knockout punch after the stiff double jab.
A good case can be made that what a fighter does in his free time or what he believes should have no bearing on his ability to get in the ring and make a living. But guys with dark histories, like Floyd Mayweather, Sergey Kovalev, and Adonis Stevenson have not painted themselves as lovable characters with a hunger for mainstream endorsements like Pacquiao has.
Manny banked on his likeability for years and got a free pass on a lot of things because of his overwhelming popularity. Now that he finally got his monster payday and has, perhaps, just one fight left in his career, Manny finally decided to let loose with his real self.
For a long while, it was thought that Pacquiao was the savior of boxing, helping inject new life into the sport and taking boxing back to the mainstream. But, boy, have things changed.
From the looks of things, Pacquiao, the boxer, is dead set on burying himself alive?and appallingly ambivalent about pulling the rest of the sport into the grave with him.
