The TV broadcasting giant have withdrawn a controversial Sky Sports Anthony Joshua poll that brought an avalanche of backlash from fans.

As you may know, certainly if you’re a boxing fan (unless you’re living under a rock) heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua returns to action this weekend in his latest title defence against late replacement Carlos Takam.

Heavyweight champion Joshua has had an impressive start to his pro career and proven himself to be a good world champion thus far, notably with a come from behind win over former long time heavyweight kingpin Wladimir Klitschko.

However, his broadcasters in the UK Sky Sports, perhaps went a bit too far with their hype this week with a controversial poll that has subsequently been removed.

Sky, a corporate organisation and absolute maestros of promotion and hype, perhaps better than anyone on Earth to their credit – know how to build a fight.

If you’re a sports fan like myself most likely you’re a fan of at least some of what Sky do in terms of their content and television news they provide.

Having said that, when you run a poll along the lines of ‘Is Anthony Joshua the greatest British heavyweight of all time?’, well, expect to hear a bit of backlash lads.

It struck me as odd straight away upon reading it yesterday on Twitter and upon inspection (at the time) Joshua was losing heavily in the ‘No’ category (the other category being ‘Yes’).

Well, the poll has vanished today and rightly so.

Yes, AJ has done great things so far in his career in a short time span (amateur and pro) and is a terrific ambassador for not just British boxing but more importantly, world boxing, but asking that kind of question so early on in his career was way, way too soon.

One suspects a certain Lennox Lewis might have had something to say about it too.