By Miguel Rivera

Former four division world champion Juan Manuel Marquez says Manny Pacquiao made a careless mistake, but it won't affect his ring legacy in any way.

A few days ago in an overseas interview in the Philippines, Pacquiao explained his resistant position on gay marriage and compared homosexuals to animals.

Pacquiao, who is very religious, lost his sponsorship deal with clothing giant Nike, who issued a public statement which criticized the statements and confirmed their decision to break their relationship..

Marquez faced Pacquiao four times in the ring. They went to a draw in 2004, Pacquiao won controversial decisions in 2008 and 2011, and Marquez knocked out Pacquiao in the sixth round of their fourth bout in 2012.

"Pacquiao's legacy will not get stained by this, it's something separate and he's about to finish writing the final chapter. He made a mistake and he will pay. There is no doubt about his quality as a fighter, but there are times when the fish dies by its mouth. He lost his Nike sponsorship and the people behind him told him he was wrong," Marquez told ESPN Deportes.

"And he is paying the consequences and he must assume [the reaction to those statements]. Sexual preferences are now open, a marriage of persons of the same sex is now open and he has to accept it."

Marquez said Pacquiao's promoter, Bob Arum of Top Rank, was correct in publicly supporting Nike's decision to drop Pacquiao.

"[Arum] was right to support the decision of Nike. It was Pacquiao's error and [Arum] shouldn't be involved in something like that. Arum [did the right thing], people are going to come after Arum if he supports Pacquiao," Marquez said.

"Pacquiao said he made a mistake and now he must accept the mistake and suffer the consequences. Pacquiao has to be more responsible his statements, in what he says or declares and he won't have these problems."