By John F. McKenna (McJack): Filipino icon WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao (54-3-2, 38 KO’s) who takes on undefeated WBO light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley (28-0-1 NC) on June 9 at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas has incurred the wrath of the gay and lesbian community with his condemnation of same sex marriage. Manny took it a step further by criticizing U.S. President Barack Obama for his stance on the issue.

The same sex marriage issue is a minefield that “Pacman” should avoid at all cost. Granted Manny Pacquaio is a congressman in Sarangani Province in his beloved Philippines, but when he interjects himself into politics in the United States during a presidential election year he is playing in the big leagues. It is just what Top Rank CEO Bob Arum, five time trainer of the year Freddie Roach and the other members of team Pacquiao do not need with Manny’s fight against Bradley less than four weeks away.

Pacquiao is now an international celebrity and a politician to boot. Manny has even met with President Obama. So when the high profile fighter makes comments that are perceived to be detrimental to Barack’s reelection, look for the attack dogs to come at him with full force. And that is exactly what has happened.

Team Pacquiao today is in the position of doing damage control. You know how it goes “I said this, but I meant to say that.” Or “I was misquoted”, or “What I said was taken out of context.”

Last November’s poor performance by Pacquiao against Juan Manuel Marquez was supposedly caused in part by the outside distractions he was involved in. The story goes that Manny’s alleged marital problems his gambling and other extra curricular activities prevented him from maintaining the focus he needed to defeat Marquez in convincing fashion.

Since that time “Pacman” had a spiritual awakening and instead of the outside activities he was involved in Manny spends much of his spare time in Bible studies. Those close to Pacquiao insist his life altering change is for real. Trainer Freddie Roach is elated at the turn of events which he is hopeful will lead to a curtailment of Manny’s outside activities.

The one thing Pacquiao must guard against is getting involved in comments which are perceived to be critical of a sitting president who is up for reelection in November. That is not the scenario Team Pacquiao envisioned when the word came out that Manny was going to avoid distractions going into his June 9 match with Timothy Bradley.

To be sure Pacquiao is still on a learning curve when it comes to politics. It is a learning curve however that he will have to adapt to quickly. Some food for thought for Congressman Pacquiao would be for him to imagine an American fighter traveling to the Philippines and then making critical comments about the leader of that country during a hotly contested political campaign. More than likely that fighter would not be warmly received.

Hopefully the firestorm which erupted after Pacquiao made his comments in reference to the U.S. president will be a wake up call for Manny. The focus for Manny must be entirely on decisively defeating Timothy Bradley.