Heavyweight champion of the world Anthony Joshua reacts to Sports Personality Award decision this year by the BBC.
Despite been heavily favored to win the award beforehand, the results told a different story. Not only did he not win, he didn’t even finish in the top three.
It was hoped that if he won the award it would be a win for boxing in the UK also, as powerhouses BBC have not shown professional boxing on television in a number of years and tend to (like the national broadcaster RTE in Ireland) only show boxing when the Olympics rolls around, every four years.
Speaking to the Daily Mail Joshua gave his reaction to the BBC’s decision and joked:
“I didn’t even come top three! That’s not good enough, I want to win it. My viewership is completely different – I’m on Sky.”
He added
“You have to pull yourself back from wanting to win these things and focus on boxing because I’m an athlete and winning my fights is more important than anything.”
Ultimately he boxes on another TV powerhouse who are a private entity in the form of Sky.
It seems to have done well for his exposure so far in his career, so it’s unlikely he’ll be upset about the BBC snub anytime soon.
His next fight is still under negotiations with Joseph Parker and initial negotiations for a fight with Tyson Fury at some point in 2018 have gotten off to a disastrous start, by all accounts.
Fury currently wants 60/40 and Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn has been less than impressed with Fury’s demands.
