WITH each passing year the BBC Sports Personality of the Year (SPOTY) seems to fade in significance both as an award and event. Perhaps this is symptomatic of the BBC’s fading relevance overall, or perhaps not, but there’s no arguing that where once the BBC SPOTY was a must-watch annual event, now it is not. 

For the past couple of years it has been entwined in an unrequited embrace with Tyson Fury — the WBC and Ring Magazine heavyweight king making it abundantly clear that he wants no part of the BBC SPOTY and even going as far as to threaten to sue the BBC if his name makes its way onto the shortlist for the 2021 award. Regardless, on the shortlist for the 2021 award his name has been put, alongside Tom Daley, Adam Peaty, Emma Raducanu, Raheem Sterling, and Paralympian Sarah Storey.

Fury has neither forgotten nor forgiven the BBC over his one and only appearance on the show. This was back in 2016 for the 2015 BBC SPOTY. A petition protesting over his appearance attracted 140,000 signatures and was drawn up in response to unsavoury remarks made by the heavyweight champion on the subjects of homosexuality and women in various interviews after his stunning victory over Wladimir Klitschko in Germany in the summer of 2015. That Fury sought to ascribe biblical authority to said remarks didn’t help his cause either.

It should be recalled though that Fury apologised for the offending comments during his appearance on the show for that year’s award and has never expressed any such sentiments since.

It was not long thereafter that he entered his by now well-documented and prolonged period of depression, during which he claims he came close to committing suicide. Since then of course, he’s returned to the top of his profession and reinvented himself as a self-proclaimed people’s champion. Abandoned in the process has been the angry and menacing persona of before, replaced by an expansive and jovial fighter revelling in the popularity he currently enjoys. What hasn’t been abandoned is the memory of that petition and the way he was overlooked for the 2015 BBC SPOTY, when he came in fourth behind winner Andy Murray, Kevin Sinfield, and Jessica Ennis-Hill.

One fighter aggrieved not to be included on this year’s shortlist is Scotland’s Josh Taylor. In a tweet he posted just after the 2021 shortlist was announced, the current undisputed super-lightweight champion was in no mind to beat around the bush: “May 22nd 2021. First person in the UK to become undisputed world boxing champion in the 4 belt era & hold all the championship belts. #HistoryMaker shove yer SPOTY right up arse.”

On the level of achievement, Taylor’s in becoming the first fighter in the UK to become undisputed in the four belt era has been grievously overlooked and underappreciated. Moreover, the BBC SPOTY has the distinct whiff of middle class snobbery about it — this to the point that when a fighter does make a rare appearance on the show the awkwardness is invariably palpable and it’s like watching some anthropological experiment. 

Boxing is a sport rooted in poverty and its denizens typically prefer their champions raw and unfiltered, antidotes to the social mores of Eton and Oxford that enjoy far too much sway for comfort and verily jump at you out of the TV screen when watching the BBC SPOTY. Perhaps, then, time for some intrepid broadcaster to establish a People’s Sports Personality of the Year award and let the general public decide who should be on the shortlist and who should not. 

On the subject of awards, if there was ever one for longevity in sport you’d be hard pressed to find the equal of Derek “Del Boy” Chisora. This weekend he faces Joseph Parker at the Manchester Arena in a highly anticipated rematch, headlining a bill that also includes Joshua Buatsi, Lerrone Richards, Jack Cullen, and Zelfa Barrett. 

When Chisora first clashed with Parker in May last year it was in the midst of Covid in front of no live audience. Parker won this one by split decision after 12 hard rounds and Chisora was in the eyes of many justifiably aggrieved at not getting his hand raised. This Saturday night the Zimbabwe-born Londoner gets the opportunity to set things right in front of a packed Manchester Arena.

It’s remarkable that Chisora is still operating at such a high level in the heavyweight division. This after all is a man who fought Tyson Fury twice — in 2011 and 2014 — and who fought Vitali Klitschko and David Haye all the way back in 2012. Even so, at 37 Chisora still brings the smoke whenever and against whomever he fights, unleashing waves of pressure with serious intent and intensity in his work — of a kind that keeps audiences on the edge of their collective seat. The result is a veteran of the sport who has succeeded in retaining his stock despite having lost his fair share of fights along the way.

When it comes to his preparations, meanwhile, Joseph Parker has based himself in Morecambe alongside Tyson Fury, who calls the seaside town home. He will be under no illusion that he is in for another torrid time in the rematch and has made it known that he’s trained accordingly under the tutelage of former middleweight world champion turned coach and pundit, Andy Lee.

Finally, Conor Benn’s emphatic performance and stunning 4th round knockout of former world champion Chris Algieri in Liverpool last week confirm that his improvements continue to manifest at a ferocious rate under coach Tony Sims. His jab carries more power than many other fighters’ backhands and he goes to the body with fearsome regularity and accuracy. He looks a sure bet to knocking on the door of world title honours before long.

Comparisons with his dad, Nigel, are fast becoming redundant. Conor Benn fights with the same spite his old man did, but if anything is the more cultured boxer of the two. His dad, who was ringside in Liverpool, agrees.