IBF confirms its heavyweight belt stripped from Fury

Newly crowned world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury was in the spotlight again on Wednesday as Britain s Sports Journalists Association (SJA) told him to stay away from its annual awards ceremony.

The boxer is also being investigated for a hate crime by British police for comments he made on a BBC program.

Rutherford said in a statement: “I have been in discussions with the BBC regarding my involvement with SPOTY after hearing what I believe to be very outdated and derogatory comments from a fellow SPOTY nominee”.

Tyson Fury has been stripped of the IBF World Heavyweight title after Fury’s clear intent to ignore the bodies chosen mandatory challenger in favour of honouring the rematch clause from the recent Wladimir Klitschko bout.

Fury, who is Catholic, said that among the things that need to happen “before the devil comes home…is homosexuality being legal in countries”.

Rutherford is one of three track and field athletes included on the SPOTY shortlist, with Olympic and world heptathlon champion Jessica Ennis-Hill and double Olympic and world champion Mo Farah also among the nominees.

If she was Fury’s manager, Maloney says she’d tell him to keep his controversial thoughts to himself.

“This is something I’m sure the BBC are taking incredibly seriously and it’s something they are going to have to look at and make a decision on”, she said. They will discuss it and he will be called up in front of the board but what can they do to him?

Rutherford, who is an outside contender for the main award, rose to fame during the 2012 London Olympics, and has been nominated this year after winning triple-jump gold at the World Championships in Beijing earlier this year.

Tyson Fury’s public proclamations about homosexuality haven’t gone unnoticed, and got him reported to authorities for a complaint of a hate crime.

A BBC journalist has been threatened with suspension after becoming embroiled in the row over Tyson Fury and the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Awards.

Fury also struck trouble Tuesday, with a police investigation launched into his comments about homosexuality.

He refused to fight its challenger Vyacheslav Glazkov, instead agreeing to a rematch against Klitschko.

Fury took the IBF belt, along with the WBO, WBA and IBO titles, by beating Wladimir Klitschko in Dusseldorf last month, and his next fight will be a rematch with the Ukrainian veteran. “I can actually say I don’t hate anybody”.

“Next thing I know, someone leaks my withdrawal request and the private decision I’ve made suddenly changes to something much bigger”.