It is closer to lunch than breakfast, the early rush of patrons long since dispelled. Behind frosted double doors framed by burnished wood, calmness and tranquility reigns.

At a glance across its flagstone floors, you could be forgiven for assuming it is just business as usual in Northern Ireland’s capital this weekend. But a deeper look says otherwise.

Amid rows of cosy egg-cup chairs and low-slung coffee tables, Ishmael Davis is intently lost in his phone. The Leeds-born fighter is an outlier here; an Englishman in Old Smoke.

Sunny Edwards, the former IBF flyweight champion, is spread across a nearby sofa, lost in conversation with the rest of the team, clad in a fabulous, riotously patterned tracksuit.

At the far end of the atrium, tucked on the far side of an art-deco bar hued in honey-warm tones, Eddie Hearn sits at the centre of a media huddle, lively and loquacious to a tee.

Mark Robinson / Matchroom Boxing

It is t-minus two days to fight night at Windsor Park, two days until Lewis Crocker and Paddy Donovan step into the ring for the IBF welterweight title in a history-making bout.

The respect is clear to see between both men, even as they have diverged upon different paths these past few months since the former's controversial victory back in March.

It is a rivalry built on an admiration for their opponent's talents, as much as their own - but only one can walk away with the belt, and neither will give an inch on Saturday night.

A generation-defining encounter to come

A stone's throw away up river, Waterfront Hall stands proud as a symbol of Belfast, part of the wider ICC complex that spills across the sheer banks of the city's main waterway.

Barack Obama came here once. So did Atomic Kitten, who recorded a live album inside the main auditorium. The hodgepodge of buildings is no stranger to celebrity bombast.

Inside a smaller auditorium, boxing has set up shop for the next few days, the veritable calm before the storm. Thursday's press conferences are a closed shop for media only.

Friday's weigh-in to come is an open affair, raucous and ready to ensure that Saturday night's finale is teed up with all the pomp and circumstance it not only needs but deserves.

Neither Crocker nor Donovan shy away from the weight of this occasion. This is not just a fight that will define a generation of Irish boxing - it is a fight with serious reprecussions.

Victory catapults one of these men into the rarefied air of world champion status. It puts them on the path to not only a defence of their title, but the challenge of acquiring more.

The welterweight division isn't just in rude health, it is positively vulgar, with talent spilling over the sides. The departure of Jaron 'Boots' Ennis isn't a blow; it's an opportunity.

Both men can seize it with gloves wide open. They must let their hands fly if they are to get the job done, must be prepared to let themselves get hurt in search of heroics.

And afterwards, when the dust is settled, they face a future where they can be firmly the master of their own fate and define how their legacy shapes Ireland's boxing future.

Chalk and cheese, night and day

The press conference is in full swing. Davis is no longer quiet. He's verbose in the most rapid-fire manner, a man who sprays words with ferocity across the stage at his foe.

Caoimhín Agyarko is not a silent participant either though. The local man is in equally voluble form, and just as creative with his insults, his own delivery rat-a-tat with venom.

Hearn stands between the pair as they trade expletives and barbs, clearly delighted by the spectacle at hand. It paints a very different picture to that of Crocker and Donovan.

Mark Robinson / Matchroom Boxing

Both men are adamantly courteous, perhaps even steadfastly gallant in their displays. There's a gentlemanly aspect to their performance, something almost chivalrous about it.

Next to the rabble-rouser name-calling of their co-main event, it is chalk and cheese, night and day, rhubarb and custard. But even then, it is all part of the calculation at play.

Donovan has arrived with something of the heel about him for this weekend, and seems like a star willing to play up to the role - but only if Crocker engages him as the face.

The latter has not done so, refused to engage in the mind games. He cuts a figure who seems to have resolutely internalised March's result and the circumstances around it.

Some have suggested that, rather than a man who seems overawed by the task at hand, Crocker is playing possum to turn a phrase - underselling the threat he possesses.

As fighters and teams pack up for another day and head back to the Hilton and beyond, the question lingers - but either way, both men are one day closer to finding the answer.

Matchroom Boxing

Watch Lewis Crocker vs Paddy Donovan II on DAZN

Watch Lewis Crocker vs Paddy Donovan II, plus the whole undercard from Belfast's Windsor Park, with a DAZN subscription this September.

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