Fury is hurting Boxing’s image even more than his own

‘He is a boxer – he gets hit in the head for a living’. This was the Comedian Andy Hamilton’s assessment of Tyson Fury on last Friday’s episode of the BBC satirical panel show Have I Got News For You. Although these words were meant in jest, they highlighted how Boxing is perceived by much of the British public.

Every sport can be reduced to stereotypes. For some, Football is played by overpaid wimps who are solely motivated by money. Others complain that Formula One is simply twenty cars following each other around a track for an hour and a half. Labels such as these infuriate fans of every sport, but they are far less negative than those applied to Boxing. To the uninitiated, boxers are violent brutes who want nothing more than to inflict as much pain as possible on their opponents. After all, the ultimate aim of a Boxing match is to knock the other fighter unconscious. This is why the sport needs positive role models, who encourage outsiders to appreciate the talent required to reach the very top. This is why the sport does not need Tyson Fury.

If Fury is in the limelight then so is Boxing, and it is only natural that the sport will be tarred with the same brush.

Fury’s bigoted views have been given far too much airtime already, and the 27 year old is clearly revelling in all the media attention. This is evident in his public responses to his critics, including to the 100,000 people who have signed a petition for him to be removed from the BBC Sports Personality of the Year shortlist. Yet while he is unflinching in his beliefs, it is unlikely that he realises the wider impact of such negative publicity. If Fury is in the limelight then so is Boxing, and it is only natural that the sport will be tarred with the same brush.

This brings us on to his Sports Personality nomination. When less popular sports are represented in awards such as SPOTY it should be welcomed by those within the sport. Yet Fury’s addition to the shortlist is, to put it bluntly, a PR disaster for Boxing. For example, while recognising the success of Max Whitlock can only be good news for Gymnastics, Boxing chiefs will surely have feared the worst upon finding out that Fury was a nominee. The media coverage in the weeks leading up to SPOTY is always extensive and the controversy that Fury attracts is a ready-made story. What the boxer fails to understand is that this controversy has completely overshadowed his exploits in the ring.

Any positive impact that could be gained by a boxer being nominated for SPOTY is lost because that man is Tyson Fury.

In terms of sporting achievement, beating a man who had not lost since 2004 to become Britain’s first heavyweight champion for six years should make Fury a leading contender to win on Sunday night. More importantly, Fury’s success ought to ensure that Boxing is at the centre of the BBC’s flagship sporting broadcast. Unfortunately, any positive impact that could be gained by a boxer being nominated for SPOTY is lost because that man is Tyson Fury.

Fury is doing a great job of making himself immensely unpopular. He doesn’t care about that. But what he should care about is the damage he is doing to the already fragile image of his sport.