It was the night Billy Joe became Billy Elliott, a young dancing master who tripped the fight fantastic, groomed by Dominic Ingle in the manner of such Wincobank wonders as Naseem Hamed, Herol Graham and Johnny Nelson.

But this was not the only surprisingly pleasant aspect of the night

At ringside, his fellow Traveller, the heavyweight Tyson Fury, proved himself a brilliant pundit. Calm, sensible and with opinions that were sage and well constructed. If only he could be like that all the time.

The likelihood is that Fury will be back to liven up the heavyweight scene next year. And that is the good news.

The bad news will be if he reverts to his old intemperate, foul-mouthed self, which will do neither boxing nor himself any good at all. Let’s hope lessons have been learned.

His suspension may have been lifted by UK Anti Doping but he still has to convince the British Boxing Board of Control that he is a worthy recipient of a restored licence.

Once that hurdle has been overcome it should be seconds out and all systems go for the most controversial heavyweight boxing has ever known.

He has accepted, along with heavyweight cousin Hughie, a retrospective two-year ban from the ring for ingesting, unknowingly they insist,  the banned substance nandrolone; a deal has been struck which guarantees there will be no legal action against UKAD for loss of earnings.

So after all this time they seem to have boxed a draw.

Of course the Board will want evidence that Tyson is not only sound in body – at times he has blown up to more than seven stones over his fighting weight – but of mind. Psychiatric reports will be as important as physical examinations.

And returning the licence may be conditional on a promise  that he will not bring the sport further into disrepute.

A week ago I was asked on BoxNation’s Boxing Matters what I am most looking forward to in 2018. I said it was the return of Fury as I suspect this will put boxing’s big cat among the pugilistic pigeons.

We may not be the best of buddies, but I like Fury as a fighter and can’t wait to see him back in action.

Tyson Fury is well named. Like his American namesake he can be charm personified one day, as expletive-free and articulate as he was at the Montreal ringside -then a monster spouting sewage and mocking and insulting all and sundry the next.

Both have oddly split personalities. Mike Tyson might have enjoyed as long friendly discourse on boxing lore, on which he is an expert, and either snub you or threaten to slap you the next.

Fortunately Fury’s violence has been restricted to that of the tongue.

I believe that the Fury who defeated Wladimir Klitschko on that heady night in Dusseldorf back in 2015 would have beaten any heavyweight in the world, Anthony Joshua, Deontay Wilder, Josepeh Parker et al.

But will we ever see that Fury again? I really hope so but any lengthy absence from the ring does not make the legs stronger and reflexes quicker.

Witness recently Carl Frampton and more significantly the former Olympic and IBF world champion James DeGale – both out for just short of a year. Fury has  missed two.

Okay, so Muhammad Ali did not fight for three years during his politically imposed exile and went on to reclaim the world title at 32, even though he never did quite recapture the zenyph of his youth when he beat Cleveland Williams and Zora Folley.

Fury, of course, could do the same but while he may claim that shedding that massive extra poundage is easy, anyone who has dieted to lose just a couple of stones will know that it isn’t.

Yet if Fury can become his old self again, he will out-box and out-game Joshua just as he did Klitschko.

There is much to look forward to in boxing in 2018, not least with Gennady Golovkin and Canelo Alvarez set to do it all again,  with new star turn Billy Joe ‘Twinkletoes’ Saunders waiting in tbe wings.

2018 can be another bumper year for the sport and the return of Fury could be up there in terms of public interest alongside the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang and the football World Cup in Russia.

Of course he will not meet Joshua in his first comeback contest. He will need at least two or three to shake off the accumulated rust and one encounter I can envisage is against his old amateur teammate David Price.

The big Liverpudlian has had a career of literally ups and downs, but he could be tempted to become and opponent for Fury, with whom he’s sparred many rounds knowing that the Gypsy King is by no means the hardest hitter in boxing, despite his size and poundage.

Price may be chinny, but he can hit pretty effectively himself and can box a bit too.

But first Fury’s New Year resolution should be to curb that tongue and let his fists do the talking.