Tyson Fury stripped of IBF title

World boxing champion Tyson Fury is under investigation for a hate crime over comments he made comparing homosexuality to pedophilia.

More than 100,000 people have signed an online petition to have Fury, who has openly said he does not want to win the award, removed.

British police are also reportedly investigating complaints of a hate crime after Fury’s statements on homosexuality.

She said the force was taking the matter “very seriously” and would be attending the complainant’s address to speak to him in person before deciding whether to question Fury.

Tyson Fury has been stripped of title for not fighting IBF’s mandatory challenger.

IBF Championships chairman Lindsey Tucker has told the BBC that it’s true Tyson has been stripped of the IBF belt because he signed on for the rematch.

Mr Fury won a shock victory over incumbent heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko, winning the WBA, IBF and WBO titles in the process.

Both Wilder and Fury are bound to face each other, given that they are titleholders.

A YouTube video later emerged of the boxer saying Olympic heptathlon champion Jessica Ennis-Hill “slaps up good”, before adding: “A woman’s best place is in the kitchen and on her back – that’s my personal belief“.

Scott Cuthbertson, of the Equality Network, called for Fury, the heavyweight champion of the world, to be taken off the shortlist for making homophobic comments.

Yesterday, trans boxing coach Kellie Maloney appeared on Stepen Nolan’s programme on BBC Radio Ulster, condemning the BBC’s decision to nominate Fury for the award and also criticising whoever was responsible for “handling” him.

“The Gypsy King, & the heavyweight champion of the world, will not be silenced I’ll always speak my mind, Like it or lump it, in Jesus name”.

Fury sparked outrage with comments in a Mail on Sunday interview in which he suggested the legalisation of homosexuality and abortion signalled the coming apocalypse.

He said: “My employer is hurting me and other gay people by celebrating someone who considers me no better than a paedophile and who believes homosexual people are helping to bring about the end of the world”.

“But if I’d said to you about the first two being made legal in the ’50s, I’d have been looked upon as a insane man”. “I can actually say I don’t hate anybody”, he told the BBC on Monday.

The SNP’s culture spokesman at Westminster, John Nicolson MP, has written to the BBC asking that Fury be removed from the shortlist.