Tyson Fury's six-round job on mandatory challenger Dillian Whyte at Wembley Stadium on Saturday didn't surprise many. What came afterwards, however, likely caught a fair few diehard boxing fans off-guard.
It was inevitable that his victory speech would lead to questions about his recent claims this would be his last bout, and Steve Bunce was in a position to ask the question before Fury could even leave the ring.
It took three tries for Bunce to get a direct answer from the WBC heavyweight champion, and when that answer came it seemed to indicate Fury was being dead serious.
"I promised my lovely wife Paris that after the third fight with Deontay Wilder that would be it and I meant it," Fury explained. "I then got offered to fight at Wembley and I thought I owed it to the fans, to every person in the United Kingdom, to come here and fight. Now it's all done I have to be a man of my word. I think this is it."
Which made it all the more peculiar when Fury was joined in the ring by mixed martial artist and UFC heavyweight champion Francis NGannou moments later.
"This is going to be one very special fight," Fury said of Ngannou. "Never seen before in the history of our sport. We're not talking kilo weight guys at 140 pounds. I'm 270 (pounds). He's 270. It's going to be an explosive fight when it happens.
"it's going to be a hybrid fight with a different type of rules," Ngannou added. "MMA gloves in the ring. A little different.
So, did Fury mean he was done with championship boxing only, when he insisted just minutes beforehand that "this is it"? Did his wife insist upon no more boxing, but was cool with her spouse donning MMA gloves to duel with the current heavyweight MMA king?
As confusing as all of this was as it unfolded, one part of it was pretty clear.
Two paths await Fury in the future, and it feels like a case of choosing one or the other. Behind door number one is the chance to turn his claims of being the greatest heavyweight of all time into general concensus, but it would take superfights with Oleksandr Usyk and/or Anthony Joshua plus four-belt unification to get there. Behind door number two is 'the Floyd Mayweather route'.
Mayweather, the 50-0 all-time great, has put Fury to shame when it comes to constantly vowing retirement before quickly forgetting the 'r-word' altogether. He bounced in and out of the sport, sometimes seemingly vowing not to fight again just to get his name back in the headlines.
However, after his last 'official' win almost five years ago against UFC star (sound familiar?) Conor McGregor in the latter's pro boxing debut, Floyd has performed unofficially more than once. Notably, he humiliated a young Japanese kickboxer in Tokyo and carried Logan Paul through an exhibition last summer. Next, he faces Don Moore May 14 on a Dubai helipad (!).
Mayweather has frequently bragged about how these sideshow jaunts have made him even more money than his 50-fight professional run. And when you factor in how much easier it is to toy with a hapless debutant or naive YouTuber than it is keeping a Canelo Alvarez or Marcos Maidana at bay for 36 minutes, the cash-to-effort ratio is even crazier.
With that in mind, it's easy to see why Fury appears to be disregarding future stadium superfights against the likes of Usyk and Joshua in favour of a crossover lark with Ngannou and other such projects.
And, at least for now, it's abundantly clear what is at the top of the 'other such projects' list.
Fury made an appearance for World Wrestling Entertainment in 2019, where he overcame Braun Strowman in a staged contest - just as Mayweather had conquered The Big Show at Wrestlemania 24 in 2008. And the question of him returning to confront current big name WWE star and fellow Brit Drew McIntyre was posed at the post-Whyte press conference.
"Don't rule me out of fighting there," answered Fury. "You might see me at Summerslam, coming up soon.
"I've got to speak to Vince [McMahon] and the boys and maybe make this happen. I know Drew McIntyre's being saying a lot of things about me - I'll have to knock him out, like I did his pal."
Shortly after August's Summerslam - traditionally the second-biggest show of the WWE calendar behind WrestleMania - WWE will return for a major UK stadium show (the parallels count in this piece is getting absurd, is it not?) in early September at Cardiff's Principality Stadium.
"You know. I'd love to be at Cardiff," added Fury. "I'd love to be back in the centre stage in the UK - especially for the wrestling.
"I enjoyed it last time in Saudi Arabia - it was fantastic, so to come here and do it would be phenomenal. We're definitely going to make a bit of contact and see if we can make that Summerslam thing a reality."
Many boxers face a career crossroads of 'money vs. legacy' - do they want to be respected as one of the best, or bravest, fighters? Or is it a case of making as much coin as they can before they physically cannot continue?
It's a battle that 'legacy' rarely wins. And understandably so. Kudos does not pay bills. Not only that, but money cannot be legally counterfeited, while it's remarkably easy to enhance your own reputation simply by saying so often enough and loud enough.
Again, it's a lesson Fury has likely picked up from Mayweather - AKA that guy who constantly wears hats that read 'TBE' (The Best Ever) to drive his narrative - and having McIntyre walk him through a choreographed yet exhilarating sequence in front of a crowd comparable to that at the Whyte fight, before trading blows with Ngannou in a manner that doesn't blot either's main sporting record allows him to simply claim he would have easily beaten Usyk and Joshua anyway. And a lot of people would believe him.
As a fan, I would be greedy and hope we get all of the above. All of it. I'd love to see Fury vs. Usyk, Fury vs. Joshua, Fury vs. Ngannou AND have him continue to explore an occasional career in pro wrestling, because he's a natural. There's a strong chance Fury would beat both and unify the heavyweight division, but there's a very reasonable chance he could suffer his first boxing defeat. Can anyone really claim that his reputation would be tarnished if he rolled the dice and went for it all, regardless of how it went?
Following in the sweet financial footsteps of Mayweather is appealing to everyone, and Fury is one of the few on the planet who can make that template a reality for himself. But there's no reason why he cannot still push both his money and his legacy to unheard-of levels in the next few years, rather than pick one over the other.