Why Antonio Conte and Mauricio Pochettino's title joust has been a breath of fresh air

In a sport where the verbal joust has become bigger box office than the punch landed, it was refreshing to see two men let their sport do the talking. And the world heavyweight boxing this weekend wasn't bad either.

While those lower down the table found any reason to be aggrieved – the refereeing, the fixture list, the opponent, the weather – the Premier League's top two bosses continued to play out perhaps the nicest and most mutually respectful title battle in the history of the Premier League.

Football has become accustomed to its heavyweight bosses talking the talk as well as walking the walk. In a large part that is borne out of the Sir Alex Ferguson years: an era of combative relations between the leading manager and the media, where Muhammad Ali-style tough talk was the order of the day.

Because Sir Alex was the greatest in his time, just like Ali, a whole generation saw fit to emulate him: if not on the pitch, or in the ring, then in front of the cameras. It has become de rigeur, over the two-and-a-half decades of the Premier League's existence, to expect managers to be as combative for the tripod-mounted camera and the notebook as their teams are for the ticket-holding and subs-paying public.

In boxing, of course, we have seen an almost revolutionary, and quite welcome change to that: in the quiet, respectful build-up to Anthony Joshua v Wladimir Klitschko, and the fight-of-the-century (so far) standards displayed on the canvas over 11 rounds.

Why sell a fight with tough talk and flying tables, when the progression of three-minute masterpieces can do it far better? And we are seeing something quite similar in the Premier League right now.

Both Antonio Conte and Mauricio Pochettino are calm, measured souls when it comes to the press conference. When it comes to the boss of champions elect Chelsea, Conte seems impossible to dislike. Truly, the only reason to take offence at his press conferences is the interminable, journey-home-disrupting delays, which usually precede them.

At Everton, where Chelsea ultimately maintained their four-point lead over Pochettino's Tottenham into the last four fixtures of the season, Conte even managed to dampen the heckles in this area.

He was repeatedly asked to comment on Chelsea's one-hand-on-the-trophy status, and repeatedly dodged the question with aplomb. Possibly the most heated he got was in addressing one correspondent's surprise at Pedro's superlative season – pointing out the winger had demonstrated he was quite good before arriving at Chelsea, in winning a fair few things at Barcelona.

For the most part, Conte was content to talk about how titles could be won with hugs.

There was a clear mutual respect between he and Everton boss Ronald Koeman: the pair of them, between each other, possessing the most distinguished and able playing careers of any current Premier League bosses – give or take the fiery Mark Hughes.

Pochettino, not quite as memorable a performer on-pitch, also likes to let his tactics and his players do the talking off it. And for all of this, just like the real prime time pugilism, the sport is in no way diminished. Chelsea and Tottenham are, between them, playing the most engrossing football the Premier League has seen in some time.

This title race is an epic: a Joshua v Klitschko – no diversionary tactics needed, here are two men happy to let their teams do the talking. And it is a breath of fresh air.

Perhaps a nod should go, here, to Claudio Ranieri, who delivered the last Premier League title with such class, composure, and no little amount of comedy. But football in 2017, like boxing, seems to have taken on a whole new complexion: one where what happens in the game eclipses the pantomime on the sidelines.

Joshua has been rightly celebrated for being key to this: for rising from the most entertaining, engrossing, and ultimately fairest of title fights in living memory, utterly supreme. Conte, and his Chelsea, should be seen in the same frame, and the Premier League feels so much better for him being at the top of the pile.