Sports megabrand Nike took notice of Manny Pacquiao’s homophobic statement and severed its relationship with the boxer on Thursday morning.
Pacquiao is currently the talk of the town after he made derogatory remarks toward same-sex marriage. In an interview with Bilang Pilipino, he said that people in same-sex relationships were “worse than animals.”
Nike called Pacquiao’s comments “abhorrent.”
“Nike strongly opposes discrimination of any kind and has a long history of supporting and standing up for the rights of the LGBT community.”
Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum said he understood Nike’s decision.
“His comments were made to a Filipino audience, where same-sex marriage is not as accepted as it is here [in the US], and Manny is a convert of enlightened Christianity, which does not believe in same-sex relationships. But to people in the United States, his words can only be viewed as hate speech. If I was running Nike, I would have to make the same decision they did,” Arum told ESPN.com
Pacquiao has been an endorser of Nike since 2006.
“Multiple sources connected to the situation tell us Manny personally tried to save the deal up until the last minute,” reports TMZ.com. “We’re told several members of Manny’s team had been communicating with Nike all morning — begging the company to reconsider and give Manny another chance.”
For now, it appears Nike has removed all traces of Manny from its online store and website. All Pacquiao-related posts on Nike.com retun the ‘404 File Not Found’ error.
Will Pacquiao items also be out of the physical stores by today?
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