With a little over a month before Manny Pacquiao’s last fight against Timothy Bradley, HBO has issued a statement which distances itself from Pacquiao’s toxic comments about homosexuals.
Here is the text of the HBO statement regarding Manny Pacquiao:
Next month Manny Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley Jr. are scheduled to meet in a Pay-Per-View bout. We have an obligation to both fighters and, therefore, will proceed to produce and distribute that event. However, we felt it important to leave no uncertainty about our position on Mr. Pacquiao’s recent comments toward the LGBTQ community. We consider them insensitive, offensive and deplorable. HBO has been a proud home to many LGBTQ stories and couldn’t approach this event without clearly voicing our opinion.”
Bob Arum, Pacquiao’s promoter, also distanced himself from Pacquiao’s religious views. Nike, Pacquiao’s long-time sponsor, dropped him immediately after news of his comments were made public.
Payout Perspective:
Pacquiao’s derogatory comments about same sex relationships has hurt the build for this PPV. It will be interesting to see if HBO does another HBO 24/7 for Pacquiao. It may hurt Bradley as well since many might bypass this fight and not watch. HBO made the statement to ensure that it gets its view on Pacquiao’s comments and explain why it is promoting and airing the bout. This should help quell any potential protests from LGBTQ groups.
we don’t care about what he said? After all, business is business.
Better yet, ask the fans if they care, because I sure don’t.
Anyway, money-makers like Pacquiao can always move to Russia and make money there since the US is obviously too busy catering to the demands of hysterical people who probably never had a job in their lives.
No one was buying this fight anyway.
D I agree (and I rarely do)
This doesnt need to be PPV anyway, this should have been a regular HBO fight, I wont be ordering it, but then again, i dont order ufc ppv either. The era of ppv needs to come to an end altogether.