Justin Bieber draws flak over Instagram posts on fallen Pacquiao
After a sixth-round knockout by longtime rival Juan Manuel Marquez on Sunday, an unconscious Manny Pacquiao lying face-down in the boxing ring shocked the world. The image burned itself in the minds of fans everywhere, even evolving into an Internet meme. But netizens' attention is being turned towards another international superstar for his remarks about the defeated boxing hero. Canadian pop superstar Justin Bieber is drawing flak from social media users, Filipino and non-Filipino alike, who find insulting the series of his Instagram posts about Pacquiao. On the night of the Pacquiao-Marquez bout, Bieber posted a photo of Floyd Mayweather Jr. in the boxing ring looking down on a fallen Marquez with the caption: "Look what Mayweather did to Marquez.. #moneyteam #nocompetition"
The photo is from September 19, 2009, when Mayweather snagged a unanimous-decision victory over Marquez in their only encounter in the ring. Bieber is known to be a friend and a big fan of the American boxer. A second photo had Pacquiao photoshopped to an angle next to Michael Jackson doing his famous "anti-gravity" lean. "Pacquiao doing the lean with MJ... Classic moment," Bieber's caption read. Bieber screencapped some reactions to these photos and in a separate post, claimed Mayweather "has nothing to gain" from fighting Pacquiao anymore. "He [doesn't] want to fight with pacquiao. Scaredy pants," one Instagram user commented. To which Bieber replied, "He has nothing to gain fighting Pacqiao. Floyd has never in his professional career lost a fight and Pacqiao lost his last two fights. If Floyd wins its not that big of a deal 'cuz it would be his third loss in a row, and if he loses he's gonna ruin his legacy either way there's no big win for Mayweather... Mayweather is boxing." Pacquiao and Mayweather Jr. have yet to meet in the ring. Long before Marquez and Pacquiao's fourth encounter last Sunday, boxing fans everywhere had been dreaming of a Mayweather-Pacquiao match but negotiations never smoothened out, amid disagreements over drug testing and how the purse should be split. And with Pacquiao's latest loss, the chance of a Mayweather-Pacquiao match seems even less likely to happen. In a third photo posted by Bieber on Instagram, the young Simba from the Disney movie The Lion King is nudging Pacquiao, face-down on the canvas. "Dad wake up," Bieber wrote. Bieber then posted another reaction from a commenter, who said, "JB hope you feel proud cause you just lost your fans who like MANNY PACQUIAO but even though you like Mayweather posting these pics are just LOW even for a girl like you." Bieber shrugged this off, confident that "If they were 'beliebers' I know they wouldn't leave my side over [the] boxing opinion I have." Mayweather, for his part, had encouraging words for Pacquiao following Sunday night. "The only thing he can do is rejuvenate himself and bounce back like a true champion," he said in an interview for boxing website FightHype.com. The following are some reactions from social media: — LBG/TJD, GMA News