A draw! Really?

The cat is out of the bag.

I scored the Manny Pacquiao versus Mario Barrios world welterweight title fight held over the weekend at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas a draw.

Yeah, you heard it right. A draw.

But in truth, it wasn’t a draw.

In my heart, it was a win for Pacquiao.

I wasn’t actually keeping track of my scoring as I was busy jotting down notes each round and sending tidbits to our Manila office from time to time to keep them updated.

In the end, the scores read: 115-113 for Barrios (Tim Cheatham), 114-114 (Steve Weisfeld) and 114-114 (Max DeLuca).

And when I tallied my scores, this was the total: 114-114.

Later on, I caught up with Manny during a brief stop for food in Barstow, California, on our way to Los Angeles from Las Vegas on Sunday afternoon.

I sat for a few minutes on the table with wife Jinkee at Panda Express as we were waiting for our orders.

“What do you think?” Jinkee asked me.

Told her with a straight face that I scored it a draw.

But (all caps), deep in my heart it was a victory for Pacquiao.

I told her and Manny this:

“It’s 114-114 for me but in reality, but those are just numbers. Manny should have been given more credit and the close round should have been scored for him because he is 46 years old and coming off a four-year-old layoff and Barrios is 30 and at the prime of his health. For me, it should have been a Manny Pacquiao win. Period.”

Manny nodded slightly.

Then our orders came and I left the couple to enjoy their food.

They had beef broccoli and teriyaki chicken and steamed white rice.

I had grilled teriyaki chicken and stir-fried green beans.

Until now, I couldn’t understand why the judges didn’t see it that way.

Manny wasn’t fighting somebody his age.

He was fighting a 30-year-old guy. Fresh and sharp and well-prepared.

“How can a 46-year-old come up with that kind of performance?” I asked Manny later at his apartment on Wilshire Boulevard late Sunday night.

He just smiled.

I knew he was heartbroken as well because he could have done much, much better.

What if his training camp was a full three months?

He could have mauled Barrios and run away with the World Boxing Council 147-pound crown.

The fellow just trained for seven-a-half weeks but still looked pretty solid.

One of the proudest guys around was WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman, who was criticized for allowing the Filipino eight-division legend to challenge for the title.

Sulaiman was right. He was right on the money.

Manny deserved to fight for the title. And he should have won the fight.

Case closed.