This former world champ boxer wants to fight Manny Pacquiao in honour of gay rights

Former world champ boxer Shane Mosley has said he wants to go head to head with Manny Pacquiao, in defence of gay people.

Eight-time world boxing champion Pacquiao sparked criticism across the world in February, after describing gay couples as “worse than animals”.

“It’s common sense,” he said. “Will you see any animals where male is to male and female is to female? The animals are better.

“They know how to distinguish male from female.

“If we approve male on male, female on female then man is worse than animals.”

Speaking to TMZ, with a little help from his girlfriend, Mosley said he would fight Pacquiao again in honour of gay rights. He lost a fight to Pacquiao back in 2011.

Speaking to PinkNews, Mosley said: “My family and I are really upset about Pacquiao and the attitude towards gay rights in the boxing community.

“I would love to make everyone feel comfortable going to a boxing match.”

Tweeting after the story broke, Mosley said he would wear rainbow gloves in honour of the LGBT community, if a rematch were to happen.

Mosley and his girlfriend were on their way to watch Pacquiao fight Tim Bradley on Saturday. The fight will be broadcast by HBO which condemned the comments as “deplorable”, but refused to take it off air.

Pacquiao has previously said that he was not bothered about the backlash – despite losing millions in sponsorship after being dropped by Nike, which described his views as “abhorrent”.

The sports star and wannabe politician has most recently claimed the comments were taken out of context.

“I don’t mean to condemn them. No one can condemn anyone,” Pacquiao said, according to theNew York Post.

“I apologise for using words that no one wanted to hear.”

“The interview was five to ten minutes long and they cut it,” he went on, claiming that it was edited down to just the words about homosexuality.

Pacquiao was also banned from an LA shopping centre over the comments, and last week claimed he was attacked outside a restaurant by an assailant who called him a homophobe.

Check out the comments via TMZ below: