Nike terminated its endorsement contract with Manny Pacquiao on Wednesday after the Filipino boxer made derogatory remarks toward same-sex couples.
"Have you seen any animal having male-to-male or female-to-female relations?" Pacquiao said on a Filipino television station earlier this week. "If you have male-to-male or female-to-female [relationships], then people are worse than animals."
Pacquiao's promoter Bob Arum, CEO of Top Rank, 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, 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."...