Pacquiao has lost so much more than his Nike millions
WITH five ill-spoken words, Manny Pacquiao has ruined the reputation of a lifetime. When asked his opinion of samesex marriage, one of the world’s most idolised sportsmen said of homosexuals: ‘They are worse than animals.’
No sooner was that crude sentence out of his mouth than sportswear giants Nike, who describe his remarks as ‘ abhorrent’, terminated his endorsement contract.
But the cost to the PacMan will be far greater than the loss of the Nike millions. The career of the only eightdivision world champion in boxing history is scheduled to end in Las Vegas on April 9 with a valedictory fight against old foe Tim Bradley. Now, assuming this really is his last fight, Pacquiao will depart under a grim, disturbing shadow. After what will be 66 fights, 21 years of valiant campaigning and more titles than our Royals can shake a stick at, the legacy is in ashes.
And the carefully planned transition from boxing into full-time politics in the Philippines is now diminished. In an overwhelmingly Catholic country where same-sex marriage is prohibited, his views may garner imminent votes towards his elevation from congressman to senator. But Pacquiao’s ultimate ambition of becoming president has to be dead. No leader of a nation can conceivably enter the cauldron of international diplomacy burdened by a controversy such as this.
It comes as a grievous disappointment to most of us who have chronicled his ring career, marvelled at his skill and courage, saluted his achievements and grown in affection for his warmth of spirit. Pacquiao has crossed a line from which it is difficult to envisage a way back and which leaves many in shocked confusion as to how this can be the lovable man we have come to know. To dine in his favourite Thai restaurant in the courtyard outside his trainer Freddie Roach’s Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles is to see the PacMan pick up the tab for all his fans who flocked to be near him but could not afford to eat there.
The amount he dispenses to those who come begging for help is eye-watering and alarming to his team. Those handouts pale beside the seven- figure charitable donations with which he provides housing, schools and hospitals for the poverty-stricken in the Philippines.
Pacquiao is as generous with his time as his money and his company is always engaging and courteous, charming and amusing.Yet he stands condemned now as a bigot. The fairytale story of the small boy who fought his way out of the swamp to earn scraps for his family, then fame and glory, then adoration as the champion of the poor is now a nightmare.
Pacquiao has contrived the seemingly impossible by conceding the moral high ground in boxing to his arch-rival and convicted womanbeater Floyd Mayweather. When told of Pacquiao’s aberration, Mayweather landed a harder blow than any thrown in their ballyhooed fight. Mayweather chastised him: ‘Just let people live their lives the way they want to live their lives. I don’t have anything against anyone. To each his own.’
Pacquiao is pleading for forgiveness. He insists he has nothing against homosexuality, only same-sex marriage. He says that his only mistake was the reference to animals.
When it comes to absolution for a man born into the Catholic faith, Pacquiao has waived his right of admission to the Confessional by turning to Evangelical Christianity. He credits that conversion for his rejection of an earlier lifestyle of gambling, drinking and womanising, and his return to the bosom of his family. But it has to compromise his relationship with the majority of his constituents.
Here in the West it is difficult to grasp the scale of hero-worship for Pacquiao. Not only in his homeland and across south- east Asia but in Filipino communities around the planet — including the US and UK — as well as throughout Latin America where his dynamic fighting style makes him an honorary Mexican.
But can that level of reverence survive this crisis? One has to suspect that Nike have serious doubts. Otherwise the cynical view is that they would have stuck with the massive shoe sales he generates, as they have stuck by drugs cheats in athletics.
The PacMan’s aberration is a tragedy of sorts. A trauma for some of the most vulnerable members of society. A hammer-blow for boxing. A betrayal of trust for those around him and all who believe in him.
The threat to his political future and the fortune he has lost may compel him to box on. The likeliest road to financial recovery would be for him to persuade Mayweather (below) to come back for another megafight. Yet what a terrible irony if he has to throw himself on the mercy of his nemesis. But can there be any path to spiritual redemption? Another gift to the homeless and disadvantaged, no matter how huge, will not suffice. This requires penance of saintly proportions. For one, I hope that is a humility of which he is capable.
Threat to his political future may compel him to box on