Pacquiao vs. Bradley: Outrageous Decision on Everybody's Lips at Hall Induction

Less than 12 hours after watching his fighter Manny Pacquiao get robbed in the desert of Las Vegas, Nevada, superstar trainer Freddy Roach was sharply dressed and riding in the back of a convertible all the way across the country in Canastota, New York, on his way to his inauguration into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. 

As Roach rolled down Wilson Street near the parade's end, fans along the route offered their condolences for last night's fiasco, an impossible to comprehend split-decision victory for Tim Bradley over Pacquiao. 

"You got robbed, Freddy!" 

"Manny won 11 rounds out of 12!"

Roach was his typical, nonplussed self, smiling and shrugging his shoulders, as if to say "Whatta' you going to do?"

"When's the rematch?" somebody asked.

"November," Roach answered, taking a program to sign from a fan who had slipped past the parade security. 

The bad taste of Manny Pacquiao's so-called loss to Timothy Bradley hung over the entire afternoon in Central New York, on a day that is always one of the nicest yearly events in the entire boxing world.

When Antonio Tarver passed in the back of his own convertible, my buddy Adam called out: "I had you winning that one, champ," referring to Tarver's draw against prospect Lateef Kayode last week.

"Thank you," Tarver responded. Then, after a pause of a half beat he smiled. "Hey, after last night I'm happy about my draw."

Showing that he was a true boxing fan in his heart,  journalist inductee Michael Katz immediately addressed the fresh controversy during his speech at the induction ceremony, calling it "the worst decision since Dred Scott."

Later in the speech, he addressed fellow inductee Freddy Roach directly, asking him: "Freddy, did they use Vaseline?"

Honestly, there was probably no better place for a boxing fan to be today than in Canastota.

The parade is essentially a small-town American parade, replete with school marching bands and civic group floats. Except that many of the greatest fighters of all-time are also in the parade, riding in the back of convertibles, not much more than five feet away from the fans.  

Like a lot of boxing fans, I woke up today feeling less than happy. A visit to the Hall of Fame ceremony to see so many boxing legends up close was a cheerful uplift.

Indeed, Katz's own induction speech touched upon the fact that these kind of terrible decisions, though they happen "again and again," can never fundamentally undercut the nobility and beauty of the competition in the ring.

The ceremony concluded with the induction of Thomas Hearns. The Hitman, who fought until 2006, when he was 48, finally joins the other three "kings" of the 1980s—Roberto Duran, Sugar Ray Leonard and Marvin Hagler.

"I prayed I would give the fans what they paid to see each and every time I fought," Hearns told the crowd. It was a terrific testament, from one of the sport's all-time greats, to the kind of heart that beats within the chest of a fighter.

Not even crooked decisions can take away from that.