The capacity crowd there for the bill-topper between the massively talented Vasiliy Lomachenko and Richard Commey joined in the chorus of Happy Birthday. Wearing a suit that looked as if it had been made from designer wallpaper, Fury, whose ring revival has been jointly and defiantly engineered by Arum and Britain's Frank Warren, demonstrated that he is now as popular in the United States as he is in the United Kingdom.

Fury’s mission coincided with the news that this weekend he could actually win another title - one he insists he really wants no part of. He has been shortlisted for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award (SPOTY) despite threatening to sue the corporation if it included him on that list in a long-standing dispute with the Beeb over what he considers its poor treatment of him during his darker days.

Fury says he wants no part of what he considers a valueless charade.

In any case he won't be anywhere near the event when it is televised live tomorrow night, instead he will be with his family at their new holiday home in Orlando in Florida for a prolonged Christmas vacation to which he has invited Deontay Wilder, the American slugger he has now twice dismantled. "It’s a big house - there’s plenty of room," he says. There needs to be, Tyson and his wife Paris now have six children - and Wilder, should he bring his own family, has eight. It should be some party.

The BBC says it cannot remove Fury from the shortlist because it was submitted by an independent panel. Alongside Fury the nominees are diver Tom Daley, swimmer Adam Peaty, teenage tennis star Emma Raducanu, footballer Raheem Sterling and Paralympic cyclist Dame Sarah Storey.

Gary Lineker, Claire Balding, Gabby Logan and Alex Scott will present the 68th annual awards. The programme, filmed at Media City in Salford, will celebrate 12 months of sporting action which managed to captivate the nation despite being hit by COVID-19.

Other awards to be announced include those for lifetime achievement, the year's top young sports personality, a team and coach of the year an unsung hero and the World Sport Star of the Year honour. The latter is the only award open to those from outside of Britain.

Fury was surprisingly voted into second place behind a multi-Olympic gold medallist and world record-breaker Peaty in the annual Sportsman of the Year award organised by Britain's Sports Journalist Association; now some bookies make him second favourite for the Beeb award just behind new tennis sensation Raducanu, shock winner of the US Open.

Fury, who says he "fears only God" may be a reluctant - some might say recalcitrant - nomination. Yet he is certainly in with a fighting chance even though he insists he does not want one, given the spectacular fashion in which he knocked Wilder out in October to retain his heavyweight world title and cement his status as he division's leading boxer.

"Even if they [the BBC] want to give me another Special Award, which they did once, I won't be making another speech for them," Fury told the Daily Mail.

"Much more important to me is that America just gave me a much bigger ESPN boxing award."

The six-foot-nine Fury has certainly grown in stature - metaphorically if not physically - since turning his life and career around after admitting mental illness. He has become a sort of Pied Piper figure wherever he goes and no one would be surprised to see him up there in the top three, in absentia, tomorrow night. All of which adds intrigue to an always spectacular occasion and the highly personable Raducanu is the nominal favourite.

But such is the current popularity of boxing - even though it is really shown on BBC screens - that viewers may be perverse enough to vote for the rebellious Fury in the live telephone and online poll.