I am disappointed in the way Adrien Broner is carrying himself as a professional boxer and role model before his first Pay-Per-View fight with Filipino ring legend Manny Pacquiao.
As a Filipino, I found his remarks disrespectful. He made racial remarks toward Pacquiao and his team, hinting that because Pacman is Asian he must be a bad driver, or yelling at Pacquiao’s team telling them he has cat and dog for them to eat.
Imagine if the shoe was on the other foot, and they threw out racist stereotypes, and told Broner to eat fried chicken or watermelon is that okay? Many people in the media have lost their jobs for those type of comments but Broner seems to get a pass for his remarks.
I would have thought as a black man in America he would have been more sensitive toward the different races of people because of the discrimination blacks have gone through. Instead, he says people hate him because he is black, yet, he goes out of his way to attack Asians and be rude to good people who have never done him wrong.
How can you cry victim but take part in the things you complain about? How can you say people are racist toward you because you are black but think you deserve a pass to attack Filipinos?
He also took shots at long-time Showtime boxing commentator Al Bernstein one of the nicest guys in boxing. He called this man who is old enough to be his grandpa a “b*tch-ass n*gga,” and claimed he was biased and against him.
All of these random attacks on innocent people seems like a last-ditch effort to try to get the fight called off.
I still remember the first time I saw Broner, I became a fan right off the bat. He was a young kid with a great smile and happy personality. He had charm and was a funny guy.
Now he wants to be this ghetto tough guy and claims he is dedicating this fight against Manny Pacquiao for the hood. If the hood means being racist, hypocritical, disrespectful and then whine and cry victim, I guess that is his interpretation of the people he believes are from the hood.
I grew up in a place in the Philippines that makes American hoods look like paradise. In my area we barely had food to eat, we had nothing, no welfare, slept in a shack with no running water, it’s the real hood, but one thing we still had was compassion and love.
In my hood, we never took from others less fortunate. We helped our family and still respected our elders, and would encourage others to try to become something.
Manny Pacquiao might not represent Broner’s “Hood,” but I guarantee you Pacquiao represents all the poor and humble around the world, what Broner represents is degeneracy.
It was also disrespectful that Broner compared himself to the late great Muhammad Ali.
How can you be like Ali when Ali had the people from all different hoods from around the world inspired by him. Ali never told Filipinos kids they ate cats and dogs to mock them, when he was in the Philippines the poor Filipino kids were gravitating toward him as a hero, he loved the kids and they always wanted to be around him. He inspired people in dire situations, while Broner likes to mock and belittle those less fortunate than him and post it on Instagram for laughs to impress his immature followers.
Win, lose or draw, Manny Pacquiao has one thing that Adrien Broner will never have – the respect and adoration of good people. The only people who admire Broner are the ones who act like him and share his mentality.
Erwin Lastimosa is a long time boxing fan and enjoys boxing discussion with his peers. Some of his favorite fighters are Sugar Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran, Marvin Hagler, Muhammad Ali, Flash Elorde, Mike Tyson and Manny Pacquiao.