The BBC has no plans to remove Tyson Fury from the shortlist for the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year award for 2015 despite the emergence of an interview with the recently crowned heavyweight champion of the world in which he makes a string of sexist comments, including some directed at the Olympic and world champion Jessica Ennis-Hill.
The interview was filmed by the online boxing channel IFL TV and took place in Düsseldorf prior to Fury’s fight against Wladimir Klitschko last weekend, when the 27-year-old secured the WBA, IBF and WBO belts via a unanimous points decision. In the video, which lasts over an hour, Fury is seen and heard saying “a woman’s best place is in the kitchen and on their back” and, in his response to his views on Ennis-Hill: “She slaps up good, dresses up well. When she’s got a dress on she looks quite fit.”
This is not the first time the outspoken Fury has made controversial comments. Before fighting Klitschko he compared homosexuality and abortion to paedophilia in an interview with the Mail on Sunday, something that has led to the creation of an online petition by the LGBT campaigner Scott Cuthbertson calling on Fury’s name to be struck off the 12-name Sports Personality of the Year shortlist.
As of Friday afternoon the petition had over 47,200 signatures but, despite this and the IFL TV interview, the BBC has said Fury will remain in the running for their annual award having become the eighth world heavyweight champion to come from Britain.
A spokesperson said: “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.”
Fury is among the favourites to win Spoty – which this year will be presented at the SSE Arena in Belfast on Sunday 20 December – alongside Ennis-Hill, after a year in which the 29-year-old heptathlete returned from the birth of her first child to secure a gold medal at August’s world championships in Beijing.
Amid growing criticism of his interview, Fury insisted on Friday that he did not want to win the award, tweeting: “Hopefully I don’t win @BBCSPOTY as I’m not the best roll model in the world for the kids, give it to someone who would appreciate it.”
In the interview, which is dated 25 November, three days before the Klitschko fight, Fury is seen eating a meal alongside members of his entourage. Having reiterated his contempt for homosexuality – he claims “the Gay Rights Act of 1977 backed in favour of paedophilia being legalised in the UK” – the fighter, who is a devout Christian, is asked by the presenter what his views are on women in boxing.
“I think they’re very nice when they’re walking around that ring holding them cards,” he replies. “I like them actually, they give me inspiration, when I’m tired and I see a good sort walking, wriggling about.”
Fury then claims he is “not a sexist” before going on to say “a woman’s best place is in the kitchen and on their back. That’s just my personal beliefs. Making me a good cup of tea, that’s what I believe.”
Regarding Ennis-Hill, he adds: “That’s the runner isn’t it? I think she’s good, she won quite a few medals for Great Britain. And she slaps up good, dresses up well, when’s she’s got a dress on she looks quite fit.” Ennis-Hill has declined to comment on Fury’s remarks.
At the start of the IFL TV interview, the fighter, who hails from a Travelling community in Wythenshawe and is now undefeated in 25 professional contests, also makes threatening comments towards the journalist Oliver Holt, who conducted the Mail on Sunday interview at the start of the last month.
Gesturing to a man sat behind him, Fury says: “See big Shane there, 6ft six and 25 stone, he’s going to break his [Holt’s] jaw with one straight right hand. Oliver, take a good look at him because that’s the face you’re going to see before you hit the deck.”
Defending Fury, his promoter Mick Hennessy told the Guardian on Friday: “Tyson is a playful character and he often says these things tongue-in-cheek. He likes winding people up, being controversial for the sake of it and more often than not what he says is in jest.
“I can tell you he’s a really good, genuine guy who means no one any harm.”
