Pernell Whitaker had to feel like he won the lottery Thursday, only to find out a few minutes later that the Internal Revenue Service thinks he's way behind on his taxes.

It couldn't have been a good feeling for Sweet Pea on Thursday to find out that he is joining the International Boxing Hall of Fame with Jose Sulaiman.

One of the greatest classes in the Hall's history -- Whitaker was elected Thursday with Roberto Duran and Ricardo Lopez -- was sullied by the announcement that Sulaiman, the somewhat less than esteemed president of the WBC, had somehow also managed to get elected.

Given what the WBC has done over the years, the only thing for Hall director Ed Brophy to do is what Sulaiman has done to so many champions: strip him.

Brophy would become a Hall of Famer just for protecting the institution's integrity by keeping Sulaiman out.

Electing Sulaiman to the International Boxing Hall of Fame is like choosing the late John Gotti for a vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Nearly every significant problem boxing faces revolves, in one way or another, around the sanctioning bodies.

There is always a cloud of corruption that envelops the sport, much of that a result of back-room maneuvering by the sanctioning bodies such as the one Sulaiman has led for years.

Sulaiman has the most supple hands in the business, because for more than three decades he has been able to manipulate the WBC's rules to suit his needs.

The WBC is hardly alone in its chicanery, of course. The IBF, the WBA and the WBO are clearly co-conspirators. Can anyone explain how it did anything to increase public confidence in the sport for the IBF to give Zab Judah his welterweight title back after he lost it in January to Carlos Baldomir?

Remember that the organizations make their money from the fighters who pay fees to compete for their titles. They thus make more when a popular boxer such as Oscar De La Hoya or Mike Tyson holds one of their belts.

It's simple math: Three percent of $1 million is more than 50 percent of $50,000. And so if you're looking to make as much as you can, you do everything in your power to protect the fighters who make the bigger purses.

The WBC, lest we forget, wanted to recognize Mike Tyson, and not Buster Douglas, as the winner of their 1990 heavyweight title fight in Japan, even though referee Octavio Meyran counted Tyson out.

But promoter Don King argued that earlier in the fight Douglas had failed to get up on time after having been knocked down, even though Meyran never counted 10. The WBC (along with the WBA) bought the argument in a blatant attempt to keep the belt around Tyson's waist.

Only intense public pressure prevented that from occurring.

No fighter in the history of the sport has been treated more kindly than Julio Cesar Chavez by the WBC. Chavez is one of the greatest fighters ever and should be elected to the Hall of Fame in 2010, immediately upon becoming eligible.

Chavez was the beneficiary of one of the worst decisions in boxing history, when Whitaker boxed circles around him in their hyped 1993 WBC welterweight title fight. Chavez was clearly outclassed, but the fight was called a draw.

A few years later, Chavez was made the mandatory challenger for Kostya Tszyu's super lightweight title despite the fact that he hadn't boxed in more than 18 months; he hadn't beaten a top-10 contender in more than five years and hadn't fought at 140 in more than two years.

Sulaiman's interest is only in what furthers the WBC's interests and nothing more.

It's hardly a Hall of Fame resume.

It's galling to think that Duran, Whitaker and Lopez are going to share the spotlight with someone who symbolizes all that is wrong with the sport.

Duran is arguably the greatest lightweight ever. Whitaker might have been the best defensive fighter since Willie Pep. And Lopez may have been the best pure boxer of his time. Their induction will be about all that is good about boxing.

Then there will be Sulaiman's induction. Maybe they'll talk of the many champions who've been stripped, the ratings that have been manipulated or the rules that were broken during his regime.

Sulaiman's induction will return the focus of the world away from the ring and instead to smoke-filled backrooms, where, sadly, it seems the best work in boxing is usually done.

Kevin Iole's boxing column is published Saturday. He can be reached at 396-4428 or kiole@reviewjournal.com.