The Third Time Won’t Be a Charm for SPOTY Nominee Tyson Fury

The Third Time Won’t Be a Charm for SPOTY Nominee Tyson Fury

For the second straight year and the third time overall, Tyson Fury’s name appears on the shortlist for the BBC British Sports Personality of the Year. Should he win, it would be a big upset.

There are too many doggone award shows nowadays, but a handful rise above the clutter because of their deep historical roots. The BBC SPOTY has been around since 1954. It commands a ton of interest in the sports-mad UK, leaving its many near-copycats in the dust.

The inaugural winner was Christopher Chataway who edged out fellow distance runner Roger Bannister. Four boxers have copped the award. Henry Cooper won it twice (1967, 1970). The others were Barry McGuigan (1985), Lennox Lewis (1999), and Joe Calzaghe (2007). Last year’s winner was Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton, a perennial nominee.

Tyson Fury’s competition this year comes from a tennis player (Emma Raducanu), a footballer (Manchester City’s Raheem Sterling), a swimmer (Adam Peaty), a diver (Tom Daley), and a paralympic cyclist (Dame Sarah Story).

Raducanu, the Toronto-born 19-year-old tennis phenom, is the overwhelming favorite. The daughter of a Romanian father and a Chinese mother who took up residence in England when she was two, Raducanu won’t appear in person when the winner is announced on Sunday. She is currently in self-isolation after testing positive for Covid-19, knocking her out of a tournament this week in Abu Dhabi and potentially out of the prestigious Australian Open which begins on Jan. 19. Her symptoms are said to be mild.

A panel determines the SPOTY nominees, but the winner is determined by a vote of the public. In the early days, the voting was done by postcard. Nowadays, Brits can vote online or by phone during the awards show. It’s similar to the long-running TV blockbuster “American Idol.”

At British bet shops, Tyson Fury is currently pegged to finish third in the voting behind Raducanu and Tom Daley. Sterling, Peaty, and Story are longshots.

“If nominated, I will not run; if elected, I will not serve,” former Civil War general William Tecumseh Sherman famously said when his admirers tossed his hat into the ring in the U.S. presidential election of 1884. With respect to the SPOTY award, Tyson Fury has a Sherman-esque mindset. The eccentric Gypsy King has threatened to sue the BBC for including him in the competition.

“This is a message for bbc sport and their SPOTY award – please take me off your list as I’m the people’s champion and have no need for verification or any awards…To anyone who supports me, don’t vote,” wrote Fury last year on his Instagram platform.

His position remains firm. Several days ago, with the shortlist not yet known, Fury reiterated his stance in a conversation with the Daily Telegraph: “I don’t need it or want it. In fact, they will hear from my solicitors if they do put me on the list. Give it to someone who needs it. I don’t. We know who the sports personality of the year is anyway – it’s me.”

Fury first appeared on the SPOTY shortlist in 2015 following his upset of Wladimir Klitschko. That created quite a can of worms. 140,000 signed an online petition demanding that he be disqualified because of homophobic and misogynistic opinions he expressed in an interview with a reporter for the Daily Mail.

The BBC chose not to expunge him but he failed to finish in the top three which would be the case again last year.

The BBC has contributed to the award show over-kill by creating two spin-offs. The publicly funded media giant introduced an Overseas Sports Personality award in 1960 and a lifetime achievement award in 1966.

The first “lifetime” recipient was heavyweight boxer Frank Bruno. Muhammad Ali was a three-time winner of the Overseas award. The pre-Indianapolis Mike Tyson copped this award in 1989 and Evander Holyfield shared the honor with American sprinter Michael Johnson in 1996.

In 2018, the overseas award was re-named the World Sports Star of the Year award. Mexico’s Canelo Alvarez is on the shortlist this year as is American football quarterback Tom Brady.

The winners of these secondary awards, which are determined by a panel of sports journalists, will also be announced on the Sunday program televised live from the BBC’s new production facility / theater complex in Salford, Greater Manchester. Unless he has a change of heart, Tyson Fury will boycott the event.

Check out more boxing news on video at the Boxing Channel

To comment on this story in the Fight Forum CLICK HERE