ORLANDO, Florida – To understand why a lollipop-sucking Facebook Live talk show host was elected to the International Boxing Hall of Fame last week alongside Manny Pacquiao is to know the story of 42 years ago.

Randy Gordon was an associate editor of The Ring Magazine who had been hired as a broadcast analyst for Top Rank fights on ESPN.

Gordon paid attention to the bouts – all the fights that would happen under his nose from his ringside vantage point.

On that day, in 1982, he learned that a fighter named Eddie Flanning whom he knew had been knocked out five days earlier was due to fight again as Rahim Tayib at Madison Square Garden on a card ESPN was televising.

Even though he was still young in the game – only seven years from being a disc jockey at New York’s WGBB – Gordon knew boxing well enough to understand that alarms should be sounding around this assignment made by Hall of Fame MSG matchmaker Teddy Brenner.

Gordon was confronted with a fork in the road that so many in the sport have confronted: Keep his peace and let boxing proceed in deceit as it often does, or speak up and potentially face the repercussions of a scrapped bout.

Gordon said the late and powerful Brenner warned him that if he raised a stink about the fighter returning so quickly from a knockout – when such events now trigger 90-day or longer medical suspensions – that Gordon was putting his job at risk.

The selfish move to turn his head in blissful ignorance would keep the paychecks rolling in. Exposing the inconvenient truth would put the job in peril.

Gordon spoke up and protected the fighter. And he lost his job.

In an era now where reporters’ cozy relationships with sources masks the hard truths that fans want and many power brokers in boxing need to hear, Gordon at least tried to set the tone.

He was elevated to Editor-in-Chief at The Ring one year later, and in 1988, when the New York State Athletic Commission needed a new chairman, a person in power asked, “Hey, what about that guy who made ESPN pull that MSG fighter who got knocked out?”

Gordon’s ongoing nickname, “The Commish,” tells you he landed the job that was best served for a man of such principle. He was in that role in the highly busy state for seven years, moving on to the national Association of Boxing Commission’s presidency before ultimately becoming one of the sport’s most educated and interested advocates on radio and social media.

He hosts “At the Fights,” on Sirius/XM radio with former heavyweight title challenger Gerry Cooney and “Randy’s Ringside,” a live chat with just him and all the fans who want to participate, on Facebook.

His knowledge of the game is paramount, but it’s not delivered in a know-it-all tone of someone basking in newfound “A list” reporter status. Gordon doesn’t have to engage in puffed-up hot takes. He knows the week’s most important stories, gives his two cents and often invites other experts to weigh in to make the subject an evenly treated dialogue, organically allowing the truth to emerge.

Last week, the Hall of Fame call reached him, and he was quickly deluged by congratulatory notes, praising his commitment, demeanor and love for the sport.    

I quickly reached out to give my best to Gordon, and he returned my call – ironically – just as I was boarding a flight to Phoenix to cover a Top Rank show on ESPN.

After detailing how humbled he was by his election, Gordon passed on a lesson he learned 42 years earlier.

“Do your best. Keep your eyes open,” he said. “And enjoy the fights.”