By Gav Duthie: Once again boxing has been snubbed as a sports by Britains BBC ‘Sports personality of the year awards’. Pound for pound the UK is probably more successful with boxing than any other sport yet rarely gets a mention. Carl Frampton recently unleashed a tirade against the BBC branding it ‘anti-boxing’ and ‘anti Northern Irish’. As for the boxing comment I can’t disagree, Frampton achieved super stardom this year yet has no nomination for the award. As a result I thought I would give my own UK Boxing personality award for the year.
BBC sports personality
The BBC is the nations terrestrial TV channels that everyone with a TV license is entitled too. As a result it is intended to be impartial and audience led but as far as boxing is concerned it doesn’t really exist. Not since the great disappointment of Audley Harrison has the BBC followed a boxers career on their channels apart from the Olympics. I’m not going to go through all the nominees because its obvious tennis star Andy Murray will win it (for the 3rd time). Tyson Fury was nominated last year but this caused a lot of controversy considering some of his comments regarding issues like religion and homosexuality.
2015
Frampton has called out the BBC turning the spotlight on boxing but this is nothing new. Last year (2015) I couldn’t believe that Anthony ‘Million Dollar’ Crolla wasn’t nominated. His story was like a movie script. Only a few weeks before a scheduled world title bout against Richar Abril the Mancunian boxer Crolla fractured his skull trying to thwart the robbery of a neighbor. Somehow he got the all clear later in the year to fight Darleys Perez for the same world title. It looked like he got his fairy tale ending when he dominated Perez but only got a draw. He never complained. He got the rematch and took it out of the judges hands stopping Perez in round 5 to finally become world champion. How can that not be a shoe in for the award?
2016 – Boxing personalities
Anthony Joshua has had a great year so far and has one fight left remaining this weekend against Eric Molina. At the back end of 2015 he looked a bit unpolished against rival Dillian Whyte but very accomplished this year. His status was somewhat fast tracked this campaign as an favorable route to a title when the inexperienced Charles Martin won the IBF crown. He also beat Dominic Breazeale in his first defence and has been a great role model throughout the year.
Nicola Adams the first female to win 2 Olympic Gold Medals is a surprise exclusion. Many critics says only athletes on the BBC get recognition. Nicola has only boxed on BBC so surely she should be a contender.
Carl Frampton has every right to be upset at missing out on the main award. He was already a unified champion at Super Bantamweight before going straight into the lions den to fight for a featherweight title against Leo Santa Cruz in his first fight at the new weight class. He put on a masterful performance to win the title in America and has every right to deserve recognition for his efforts.
My winner, however, goes to Ricky Burns who became only the third British fighter (1st Scottish) in history to become a 3 weight world champion dominating Michele Di Rocco, stopping him in the 8th round. Within the year he also defended the crown against the dangerous unbeaten Kyril Relikh. Ricky has been struggling in the sport both in and out of the ring which makes his exploits even more impressive.