SPOTY was shortly after the 'superior' DMs came out. If they'd given it to AJ, that story (which was cleverly buried by Matchroom) would've got more attention if journalists went digging.
“SPOTY” is a meaningless, discredited award and I’m surprised anyone gives it any thought whatsoever.
Great story and lots of background for the bbc to use but I can’t see fury and AJ unifying anytime soon unfortunately. Why AJ is fighting all the way in June next makes no sense! will fury/wilder 3 happen before June? Doubt it
Recency bias can take over and skew things. SPOTY is in December, so if Fury knocks Wilder into next week in July, it may be forgotten by the time the Olympics end in August. Laura Kenny / Trott - arguments aside regarding relative achievement - already has an OBE and CBE and the CBE is fairly recent. She is already loved by the establishment. She is in the news now and with the Olympics coming up she will be plastered all over websites and the telly, prior to the cycling. Came back after having a baby, refused an op in order to compete, fell off her bike and seen with blood pouring out of her. She was up for SPOTY in 2016 at 25/1, where she did not figure, but she does not have a Murray, Brownlea or Farah this time. Generally available 12/1, showing up, fading and completing may be good enough. If we look at last 10 years, cycling has taken 3 and tennis 3, so with no tennis star to worry about, could be game on.
I can't watch the program, it's become overblown, smug and self congratulatory. It used to be a couple of hundred famous faces in a studio watching some clips of the years action and clapping the winner. A decent watch at the end of the year if you liked sport. Now it's an arena, awful jokey segments and it goes on and on and on. I don't give a monkeys who wins and I doubt many of the athletes concerned do either.
If Ben Stokes can win SPOTY then, if there's any justice, nothing Fury has said in the past should prevent him winning. But people who seem willing to overlook Stokes beating someone unconscious in the street are prepared to cling onto comments Fury made a long time ago.
Depends what else happens this year doesn't it. He's got to be number 1 thus far. If Chris froome manages to win the tour de France for the 5th time this year after being out seriously injured that would be very hard for anyone to beat. Not that I can see it happening.
To the ruling class breaking their unwritten hate speech laws, is far more of a crime than beating someone unconscious in the streets.
Can anyone here even bear to watch SPOTY from start to finish? I mean it's just awful. Pious, sycophantic, and maudlin in equal measure and presented by Lord Helmet of the Bien Pensant, Gary Lineker.
It's not just the ruling class but the public as well who voted Stokes SPOTY in 2019. I'm amazed how people seem to have forgotten/ignored what Stokes did.
Maybe they literally voted for a sports personality of the year, rather than discarding anyone whose private conduct and beliefs didn't mirror theirs? You know, like grown ups.
I hope so because that will mean Fury may finally get the credit and recognition he deserves from the general public. But Fury received far more criticism in the build up to the SPOTY awards after he beat Klitschko than Stokes did last year even though Stokes' conduct was more serious than Fury's.
I don't see how Bradley Wiggins has won SPOTY but Froome hasn't. That makes absolutely no sense to me at all.
