No sooner was the time for talking here than it ended. 

With Dillian Whyte focusing on training in Portugal in the lead up to the biggest night of his career, against Tyson Fury in Wembley this Saturday night, and Fury himself isolating in camp at home in Morecambe, the build-up after the announcement has simmered rather than exploded.

This week, following a public workout, a press conference and today’s weigh-in, it’s gained momentum but it was still sold out some time ago, with 94,000 expected to pack Wembley Stadium for a record-setting attendance.

Fury came in lighter than many imagined at the weigh in but his career high was against Deontay Wilder in his previous contest, last October, and that was following a camp plagued with issues, not least his new-born baby daughter fighting for her life in hospital in England just weeks before the contest in Las Vegas.

On Tuesday, Fury fielded multiple questions about his former advisor Daniel Kinahan, the alleged Irish crime lord, to the point of complete agitation. He went from a newspaper roundtable where he was peppered with questions about the Irishman, to the point of promoter Frank Warren intervening, into a session with Sky Sports who then questioned him on Kinahan for several minutes until Tyson had had enough, and departed saying he wouldn’t do an interview for that broadcaster again.

The next day at the press conference, the media was not invited to ask questions of either fighter and then Tyson was on lockdown until the weigh in. 

Is Fury really focused on the job at hand? How much has the news of the last two weeks infiltrated his consciousness? Kinahan, who has subsequently been sanctioned by the UAE having been sanctioned by the United States government, has certainly been a key component in Fury’s comeback from the abyss several years ago. 

Maybe the last couple of days have allowed Fury to get that line of questioning out of his head. It’s been a focal point of fight week due to the timing of the sanctions but perhaps, when Fury’s music hits tomorrow and 94,000 salute him like a returning hero in his first fight in the UK since 2018 and his first in London since 2015, he will find himself in a happy place – away from the journalists, away from the demands of being one of the most-recognizable celebrities in the United Kingdom and on a lonely ringwalk where his mind will start to create a laser-like focus and where he becomes one of those generational fighters who looks born to do what so many want to be able to do; where he looks serene, happy and at peace, as though he hasn’t a care in the world.

Maybe. 

Twenty-one years ago this week, Hasim Rahman smashed the heavyweight belts out of the hands of a distracted Lennox Lewis. Lewis was a huge favorite, with significant advantages in height and reach, but he took his mind off the job and his back to the ropes where Rahman plied him with a right hand that changed the course of heavyweight history, for a few months at least.

Lewis had his mind on other things, too. He had been filming a movie in Hollywood, left his travel to South Africa too late and then was more interested in meeting Nelson Mandela than Hasim Rahman.

Here, Fury has been asked about retirement – he maintains this is his last fight – Kinahan and his future. There’s also been a lot of talk on Whyte’s lack of involvement in the build-up, but, since he broke the ice on a conference call last Thursday, Dillian did a sit-down interview with host broadcasters BT Sport and has impressed many this week with his focus, professionalism and the way he’s dealt with the media.

“We’re going to give you a f------- real fight,” said Fury [264lbs], having weighed in. “It’s going to be a war.”

For Whyte [253lbs], the talking might have been done late, but now it’s over and only the fight is left. “We trained hard, I’m ready, I feel fit’” the challenger said. “Let’s go.”

Not much will be gleaned from the weights. Fury was unusually heavy for Wilder III because of the build-up. Here, he’s had seven full weeks with trainer SugarHill and like any other fighter worth his salt says this has been his best training camp.

He’s also sticking with it being his last. We will see about that. One wonders if the lure of a mega-fight with the Joshua-Usyk rematch winner will be too much to turn down but perhaps the master of the unexpected means it this time. He has spoken about taking 20 years of punches and being aware of the damage he’s sustained. He also has a keen eye for boxing history and knows not many go out on their own terms, so he could well be one of the few who sails into the sunset, away from the glamour, the violence and the media, and one of a select few who does not come back.