Newly crowned heavyweight world boxing champion Tyson Fury. Photo / AP
Newly crowned heavyweight world boxing champion Tyson Fury. Photo / AP
The wife of BBC Sports Personality of the Year presenter Clare Balding has condemned boxer Tyson Fury's inclusion on the shortlist for the award, branding him a "homophobic idiot".
The stinging attack by Alice Arnold - who married Balding earlier this year - came after a vile diatribe by the newly-crowned world heavyweight champion in a Mail on Sunday interview in which he equated homosexuality and abortion with paedophilia.
Ms Arnold, a former BBC Radio 4 newsreader, said his comments could lead "to young people suffering bullying and mental illness and in some cases being driven to suicide".
Tyson Fury should remember he’s a role model when he opens his mouth | Alice Arnold https://t.co/MFLEEPbe6d
Pressure is mounting on the BBC to drop Fury from the shortlist of the showpiece annual award after his homophobic outburst was followed by sexist remarks about fellow nominee Jessica Ennis-Hill.
More than 50,000 people have signed a petition demanding Fury's name to be dropped.
In an interview with the MoS's Chief Sports Writer Oliver Holt last month, Fury, 27, said: "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 is paedophilia."
Britain's new world boxing champion Tyson Fury celebrates with the WBA, IBF, WBO and IBO belts. Photo / AP
Since publication of the interview, a YouTube video has emerged in which Fury threatens Holt with physical violence.
Tweeting following Britain's triumph in the Davis Cup with Andy Murray, just hours after Fury's title bout last weekend, Ms Arnold said: "Two British victories. One by a consummate professional and gentleman, the other a homophobic idiot. I know who I'm cheering."
With her partner poised to preside as the award is given to the boxer if he wins the public vote later this month, Arnold then wrote an article for The Guardian newspaper, warning his remarks encouraged homophobic bullying.
"It is talk like this that leads to young people suffering bullying and mental illness and in some cases being driven to suicide," she wrote.
"If you don't like gay people and think we are the devil incarnate, then keep it to yourself unless you want blood on your hands - and not on your boxing gloves. It will be up to us to cast our votes... Perhaps this year 'personality' really IS important."
Clare Balding at the 2008 BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards. Photo / Getty
But Balding, who has been with Ms Arnold for 14 years and who will present the award show alongside Gary Lineker and Gabby Logan on December 20, remained silent on her own opinion of the boxer.
"Unfortunately, I won't be commenting," she said last night.
Fury's critics now include his grandmother, Patience, who told the MoS: "I think he needs to keep his tongue in his head a bit more."
Speaking from her chalet in a Cheshire caravan park, the 80-year-old said of his sexist remarks: "He doesn't mean any harm from it. And he's not like that when he's here. If he said something like that to me he'd get that fruit bowl in his face."
In the chilling video in which the MoS's Oliver Holt is threatened, Fury prompts his friend Clifton Mitchell to deliver an ugly threat to the journalist: "I'm gonna f*** you up."
Three years ago, Mitchell backed an anti-streetfighting campaign - One Punch Can Kill. It followed the manslaughter conviction of Mitchell's son Ty, a super-middleweight boxer who had punched a student in Leeds city centre. When approached by the MoS, Mitchell claimed the threats were 'just banter'.
Last night, Fury's promoter, Mick Hennessy, dismissed the threats made towards Holt as "tongue in cheek", barred this newspaper from future press conferences and threatened the MoS with legal action for what he called a "witch-hunt".
Asked whether he thought it was appropriate for Fury to make threats of physical violence towards a journalist, Hennessy replied: "Get a grip. Get a grip. He's a prankster. He's having a bit of a laugh."
A BBC spokeswoman said: "It will be for the public to decide who will be crowned Sports Personality of the Year 2015."
