TV View/Mary Hannigan: "It's just another fight," said Jack Trickett, "it just means more, that's all." So we took him at his word. A night like any other. But more special. "It's a 50-50 fight," he told Sky Sports, "but I think Michael has the edge on him," which we took as meaning that Michael Brodie and Injin Chi were of equal ability, only Brodie was better.

This, then, heralded the start of a night of confusion. Brodie, managed by Trickett (upon whom the Only Fools and Horses character of Trigger must be based), was fighting South Korea's Chi in Manchester for the WBC Featherweight title.

By the time the final bell dinged, Brodie, drenched in blood, face swollen, eyes closed by the battering he'd received, looked like he'd head-butted a juggernaut; Chi, on the other hand, merely possessed the face of a man who'd lost an argument with a Black and Decker drill. Chi, then, surely, won the fight.

He did too. For a while.

But confusion reigned. "How difficult can it be to add up scorecards, it isn't rocket science, is it?" asked a weary Ian Darke, Sky Sport's Mr Boxing, as the three judges re-enacted a scene from a Florida count centre, with a troublesome pregnant chad - in the shape of a hotly disputed deducted point for Brodie after a clash of heads (boxing lingo for head butt) - getting in the way of declaring a clear victory for Chi.

Fast forward. The winner? Chi. Promoter Barry Hearn said he would challenge the result, largely because Brodie had only accidentally put a hole in Chi's eye-lid with his forehead.

"He butted my lad like my lad butted him," Trickett protested.

This defence didn't impress Joe Suleiman, president of the WBC, who grinned, cheesily, throughout, like only the president of a boxing body could, insisting the result was entirely correct. Until he had to face the cameras again, 20 minutes later, to announce that "the result is being withheld - the fight might be a draw".

At which point the cheesy grin was wiped off his face.

We mention all of this not because we think you'd be interested - in fairness, if you showed the remotest curiosity in Brodie v Chi on a damp October night in Manchester we'd worry about you - rather because we feel it demonstrates that sport is a funny, unpredictable and dippy auld game.

Many have tried to get to the bottom of it. For example, Adrian Chiles, on BBC Radio 5, recently asked the legend that is Sergei Bubka: "Is there something that sticks out that makes you an exceptional pole-vaulter?"

To which Bubka, allegedly, replied: "Ho, ho - good one."

Jimmy Greaves, when asked last week, on that witty game show They Think It's All Over (who could ever have enough of willy and booby jokes?), to comment on modern football, declared: "It's a poof's game now". At which point the audience heroically attempted to stifle those yawns. "In my day it was a man's game," said Greavsie.

TTIAO captain David Seaman sighed and said: "B******s". Bless him.

Greavsie attempted to back up his theory by citing the example of Bert Trautmann, the Manchester City goalkeeper who broke his neck in an FA Cup final, but played on in the game. "Is that brave or is that stupid?" asked Seaman. Good question.

Greavsie had a think. "Yeah, true, he hasn't looked back since," he said of the man with the - note - broken neck.

Uproarious laughter. Seaman's face said: "I rest my case - I'd rather be a poof than a downright bloody eejit."

Páidí Ó Sé, of course, is neither, although the downright nasty have alleged that he took the Westmeath job because he wanted to take a year out of football.

On Friday night Eamon Dunphy was a guest on TV3's Páidí Ó Sé Show, where the new Westmeath supremo has held court since the start of the season. Well, almost. He appeared on the first show in the series and refused to answer the question that had all of us tuning in: i.e., are you about to quit Kerry/is Kerry about to quit you?

"Tonight is not a night for blood-letting," he said on Friday.

"Well, bugger off then," Dunphy said to himself. But?

"Yes, I was very disappointed in the manner in which my resignation was conveyed to me," said Páidí, with a twinkle.

When asked if he had been "shafted", Páidí referred back to the earlier debate between two guests on the merits, or otherwise, of Mother Teresa. One man's poisonous devil is another man's saint.

You can be sure, though, if Westmeath win the All-Ireland next year Ó Sé will be beatified in St Páidí's Square, Mullingar, an honour that will merit yet another TV3 invitation.

"Arra, tonight is not a night for beatification-letting," he'll say.