SO, I WATCHED the Fury/Klitschko fight. I inherited a love of boxing from my mum, she from her dad. I’m naturally inclined to cheer for Fury because I know exactly the spot he grew up in. He’s gobby, inappropriate and tough as nails. Furthermore, he’s called Tyson Fury, the boxer’s equivalent of a new female singer emerging called Winehouse Soul and living up to it. The fight was a little boring but there was no arguing that he ascended the ranks to become something approaching superhuman.
After his nomination for the BBC Sports Personality of The Year a gay scandal emerged around him. In a Daily Mail interview, Fury appeared to compare homosexuality to paedophilia. I’m old enough to remember these arguments, repeated endlessly in the 70s and 80s. Fury is hardly one to back away from a fight. As the storm brewed he drew his primary piece of evidence from a 1977 BBC news article, connecting the National Council for Civil Liberties to the Paedophile Information Exchange, the same link used last year to trash the reputation of Labour veteran, Harriet Harman. A petition gathered pace online to have him banned from the BBC awards show. Tens of thousands signed it. The BBC refused to kowtow to public demand. By now, Fury may well have won it.