Three words sum up Paul vs Tyson – and offer one simple solution

Sign up to our free sport newsletter for all the latest news on everything from cycling to boxing Sign up to our free sport email for all the latest news Sign up to our free sport email for all the latest news SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. I wanted to give the fans a show, but I didn’t want to hurt someone who didn’t need to be hurt.” This would not have been an issue if Paul vs Tyson had been sold as an exhibition, but key figures went out of their way to make it an officially sanctioned, pro fight. Paul and Tyson are friends, and instinct always warned that it would be a pro fight in name alone – contested more like an exhibition. open image in gallery Paul was a comfortable winner on points in Dallas And yes, to highlight the problem with the inauthenticity of this fight – to highlight how it ridiculed actual sport – might sound like implying: “We needed to see Mike Tyson get knocked out; that would have been true sport!” Yet this is where ‘merciful’ and ‘inauthentic’ can be conflicting but simultaneously true. That could have been avoided by arranging it as an exhibition bout, which would still have drawn millions of viewers who wanted to see Tyson box again – although the impossibility of Paul losing would have significantly lessened emotional investment, it must be said.