There are boxers who have been cut, bitten and hit during news conferences to promote their fights. And then there are boxers who have been laughing, cuddling and praising each other.
Lennox Lewis needed a tetanus jab after throwing a right hand at Mike Tyson when he had been bitten on the thigh and Riddick Bowe picked shards out of his clothes after the Cuban Jorge Luis Gonzalez threw a glass at him. In Britain, David Haye, Dereck Chisora and Tony Bellew are multiple and enjoyable transgressors.
During the last two months there has been nothing but love, respect and handshakes between Wladimir Klitschko and Anthony Joshua; it has worked because 90,000 tickets for their April fight have sold and nobody has been cautioned about language, picking up a table or making specific physical threats.
However, there needs to be a bit more anger to show everybody that this is not a retirement party for Big Wlad and an easy night for Big Josh. There needs to be a bit of needle, something in the eyes to show everybody that far beyond the smiles and sincerity lurks a very dangerous night in the ring. Heavyweights, remember, never have to worry about starvation, which often leads to boxers losing their minds in the days before a fight as they shrink their body to an unnatural weight.
A few years ago when Ricky Hatton and Floyd Mayweather shared a jet and went on a tour that included several cities, before ending in Manchester, it was easy to see the hate. They nodded in front of the cameras, smiled a plastic version of a smile and then cleaned their hands in private after shaking so many times.
"I just want to go home and get clean," said Hatton after the final stop. There is no sense of animosity when Klitschko and Joshua come together and in many ways it is fights like this, fights like Hatton and Mayweather, where the dislike belongs. There is time.
Klitschko has been hospitable to just about every man he has beaten and has talked beautifully about it being sport, not personal to him. "I'm here to win a contest, not talk about stupid things," Klitschko said before giving David Haye a lesson. He said similar things before the Tyson Fury fight in November, 2015, which was his last fight.
In the months, weeks, days and hours before both Haye and Fury there was something different about Klitschko. He was angry, on edge and that is missing so far from the build-up to Joshua. Does he know something? Did he really solve Joshua when they sparred together?
It looks and feels like Klitschko is confident. So confident that he is going through the polite rituals without a care in the world and then dashing back to his closed-door preparation. Klitschko has praised Joshua since 2015, talking about the young British fighter's willingness to learn and the dignified way he carries himself away from the ring.
"He is the future champion, a fighter that understands what it means to be champion," said Klitschko before the Fury fight. He has never been impressed with the lazy talk, the swearing and the bold claims by most of the men that have fought him. The Fury defeat hurt far more than his previous three stoppage losses because he could never explain it. Klitschko knows that Joshua will not win on points and he acts like he believes a stoppage is unlikely.
In November, 2015, Fury and his people did upset Klitschko and that was a factor in the fantastic boxing lesson that took place in the ring. Haye had done the same, make no mistake, in his build-up, but once the first bell went it was obvious that he was physically inferior; Klitschko will never lose to a man that fights like he wants to lose. He will also, in his mind, never struggle in a fight against a novice.
There is an expression in boxing when a veteran has beaten a younger man: "He was old-manned out of the fight," people say and I keep thinking of that when I see Klitschko and Joshua together. Too many boxers have underestimated Klitschko's reach, speed and power for too long -- I hope Joshua has not underestimated the Ukrainian's intentions because they are bad.
It has been muted, a bit dull and safe, but inside, the pair of them are hopefully plotting the vicious downfall of the man in the opposite corner. It would be nice to just get a sense of the intended action, just a sign would be good and it might just make Joshua aware that Klitschko is not a kindly uncle; he is actually a very brutal, spiteful and nasty man in the ring.