Why the BBC is right to stand by Tyson Fury as a Sports Personality nominee
/origin-imgresizer.eurosport.com/2015/04/22/1462335-31243733-310-310.jpg)
Updated 07/12/2015 at 20:31 GMT
Tyson Fury has become a figure of derision for a series of controversial opinions since winning the world heavyweight title last weekend with an online petition set up to remove him from the list of Sports Personality of the Year contenders. But culling him for personal views sets a dangerous precedent, writes Desmond Kane.
Tyson Fury with fans.
Image credit: Reuters
A crowd of around 55,000 watched Tyson Fury overcome Wladimir Klitschko of the Ukraine to win the WBA, IBF and WBO world heavyweight titles at the Esprit Arena in Dusseldorf 10 days ago.
That is roughly 27,000 less than the number of people, at the latest count, who have signed a petition urging the BBC to ban the debatable Mancunian as a potential winner of this year's Sports Personality of the Year award because of views he aired in an interview with the Mail on Sunday newspaper last month in which he compared homosexuality and abortion to paedophilia.
The Mail on Sunday defended the interview over the weekend by publishing an audio transcript after Fury appeared on Irish radio last week claiming he was misquoted and misrepresented.
"There are only three things that need to be accomplished before the devil comes home: one of them is homosexuality being legal in countries, one of them is abortion and the other one's paedophilia," said Fury. "Who would have thought in the '50s and '60s that those first two would be legalised?"
A video also emerged on Friday, apparently filmed before he fought Klitschko, in which the man dubbed 'The Gypsy King' due to his traveller heritage, says of the Olympic and world champion heptathlete Jessica Ennis-Hill and fellow SPOTY nominee: "That’s the runner, isn’t it? She’s good, she’s won quite a few medals, she slaps up good as well. When she’s got a dress on she looks quite fit."
/origin-imgresizer.eurosport.com/2015/12/01/1743398-36866166-2560-1440.jpg)
Tyson Fury poses with his belts after the press conference.
Image credit: Reuters
The Daily Mail have branded Fury a bully and a bigot. Fury partook in a debate on the Jeremy Vine show on BBC Radio Two earlier on Monday discussing his position that will probably add several thousand extra votes to the petition.
“I do think she (Ennis-Hill) looks good in a dress," said Fury. "I believe all women look good in dresses. Is that a crime if I think women look good in dresses?
I wasn’t asked about her achievements, I was asked the question about Jessica Ennis. But I do think she looks really fit in a dress. That’s just my opinion. If there are people out there who think she looks ugly they should keep their opinions to themselves.
Fury has become an easier target for vitriol than most of the 18 blokes he knocked out on his way to winning the world title. He would been have wiser keeping his own counsel, but he also has the right to freedom of thought and speech.
The BBC said they disagreed with Fury's comments, but defended the right to include him on a shortlist of 12. They are right to do so.
The Sports Personality shortlist is compiled by a panel of industry experts and is based on an individual's sporting achievement - it is not an endorsement of an individual's personal beliefs either by the BBC or members of the panel.
It is ironic that the national broadcaster, so often seen as politically correct to a fault, find themselves in a position where they are now defending a non-PC figure like Fury.
It is also a bit rich of the Daily Mail to adopt the moral high ground on such issues. Ask Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn or Ed Miliband, to name just two public figures who are subject to ongoing character assassinations, if they are happy with some of the wretched mud that has been slung in their direction by owners of a tabloid paper who do not share their views.
While the nature of Fury's quotes may be offensive to many, and generally troubling when he has such an obvious platform to really sell his sport in a positive manner, they are not illegal.
Boxing has become marginalized on mainstream television to such an extent that the British sporting public would struggle to identify Fury if it was not for his 6ft 9in frame. If big Frank Bruno had emulated Fury’s achievements in ending Klitschko’s 11-year unbeaten run at the top of the world’s richest boxing division, he would have been nominated for SPOTY.
Fury would perhaps be doing himself a favour to take David Haye's advice. His fellow boxer told the Guardian: "I thought I was the controversial bad guy. But Fury’s got to stop saying that c**p. Come on man – just shut up. It’s stupid and wrong and it’s giving boxing another negative headline. Stop it. Just stick to singing after the fight."
But we are going down a dangerous round if we begin to decide who can say what and went they can say it.
Fury's views, hewn from biblical times, might be unappetising to many, but he is a professional sportsman earning a living from boxing where he fights other huge men, and is walloped on the face. He is not, and has never pertained to be a moral guardian. Nor should he be viewed in such a light.
Whether you see him as a role model is again a personal choice for parents to make if they went their children to pursue a career in boxing. Whether you view him as homophobic, sexist, a pantomime villain or just a bit of an uneducated idiot, these are not grounds to burn Fury at the stake.
Two wrongs do not make a right. And bowing to a lynch mob mentality and removing Fury from the SPOTY list would be an act of folly as bad as some of his alleged beliefs.
Fury has been making controversial statements for some time before he was nominated for SPOTY, and was fined £3,000 by the British Boxing Board of Control in 2003 for abuse on Twitter against David Price and Tony Bellew in which he described them as "gay lovers".
If the panel of experts felt it was wrong to exclude him on grounds of personal opinion, they should have done so before publishing this year’s list.
Fury answers a question when he is asked it. If his answer is not to everybody's liking, why wait for an answer? If you don't like Tyson Fury, avoid the Sports Personality Of The Year award. Or better still vote for somebody else in the list.
Andy Murray is probably going to win SPOTY by some margin after leading Great Britain to the Davis Cup for the first time since 1936. He is a bloke Fury says of "what personality does it take to….hit a ball back and forth?"
Like his other opinions, Tyson Fury's views deserve to be given short shrift.
Scan me
Related Topics
Share this article
Advertisement
Advertisement