Opinion | Manny Pacquiao was just being true to himself – as an unapologetic homophobe

In the end, it’s your reputation that will be here long after you are. In that respect few Asian sports personalities of recent vintage have built a more enduring and positive global reputation than Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao.

He built that reputation by being the ultimate underdog from the ultimate underdog country. He built it by carrying a dying sport with his tenacious talent and he built it by being charming, unassuming and accommodating. One week ago Manny was universally admired, he was the light to his adversary Floyd Mayweather’s darkness.

Yes, he was somewhat pious. A repentant sinner who had admittedly fallen prey to the intoxicating allure of fame. But he was a family man now and all business at that. Floyd had done jail time for domestic abuse and was so ostentatious that he nicknamed himself Money Mayweather and was happy to show one and all that he had more money than most Central American countries. Compared to him, Manny was being fit for a halo. He made it his mission to fight the type of debilitating poverty in his homeland that had ensnared him as a youth.

A mission that has brought him to the brink of being elected to the Senate in May and which could well see him run for president in a few years’ time. For those with even a smidgen of empathy, Manny was easy to like.

READ MORE: All our Manny Pacquiao coverage