Manny Pacquiao Banned from The Grove for Gay Comments — Again

Manny Pacquiao has been banned for the second time from The Grove shopping center in Los Angeles for comments he made recently about gay people.

The championship boxer took a break from training for his upcoming fight against Timothy Bradley by visiting the popular outdoor shopping center earlier this week to watch a movie with more than a dozen members of his entourage.

But after the visit, Grove owner Rick Caruso told TMZ that Pacquiao would no longer be welcome there.

The ban comes one month after the boxer appeared to compare gay people to animals in an interview with a television station.

“It’s just common sense,” Pacquiao said when asked about his opposition to same-sex marriage. “Have you seen any animal having male-to-male or female-to-female relations? If you have male-to-male or female-to-female [relationships], then people are worse than animals.”

In banning Pacquiao from the shopping center, Caruso told TMZ that the boxer’s comments represent “statements of hatred.”

“A lot of people from the gay community come to The Grove and they have a right not to feel uncomfortable,” he added. “Manny Pacquiao is no longer welcome.”

The new ban is the second time Pacquaio has been barred from The Grove; in 2012, the official Grove Twitter account announced that the boxer was “not welcome” at the shopping center after he had reportedly quoted a Bible verse about homosexuality in another interview.

That ban was later canceled after it was found that Pacquiao had been misquoted in the interview.