Manny Pacquiao has said that he respects Nike's decision to terminate their sponsorship of him following his repugnant homophobic comments yesterday.
Speaking to Associated Press during a break in his preparation for his bout with Anthony Bradley on April 9 in Las Vegas, Pacquiao said that
Whatever decision Nike makes is its decision and I respect that and its sponsorship of me now only involves my clothes for my fight.
Our contract has already ended aside from sponsoring the boxing.
In spite of this, Pacquaio stood by the comments he made yesterday:
I'm happier because I'm telling the truth ... It's worse if we will hide the truth. I'm happier that a lot of people were alarmed by the truth.
In an interview on Philippines' station TV5, Pacquaio said that homosexuals were "worse than animals":
It’s common sense. Do you see animals mating with the same sex? Animals are better because they can distinguish male from female.
If men mate with men and women mate with women they are worse than animals.
Pacquiao is a staunch Christian and justified these views by saying that the he is against same-sex marriage as it is what the Bible teaches.
Pacquiao is currently running for election to the Senate in the Philippines, and his promoter Bob Arum said that the comments were an attempt to appeal to his conservative voters, saying that "what he said was intended for home consumption for Filipinos wrestling with question of legalizing same-sex marriage".
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