LONDON: World heavyweight champion Tyson Fury’s uncle and trainer says the decision to strip the British fighter of one of his three titles is “absolutely scandalous”.

The 27-year-old, whose comments about homosexuality and women have provoked almost as many headlines as his feats inside the ring, was relieved of his IBF belt after agreeing to a contracted rematch with the Ukrainian Wladimir Klitschko instead of fighting the IBF’s mandatory challenger.

“It’s true he’s been stripped of his IBF belt,” Lindsey Tucker, IBF championships chairman, told the BBC on Tuesday. “Our challenger was Vyacheslav Glazkov, but instead Fury’s gone and signed a rematch clause with Wladimir Klitschko.”

In an interview in Boxing News, Peter Fury said: “It’s absolutely scandalous. I’ve not spoken to Tyson yet but we’re dealing with it.

“But we’ve got a rematch that we’re tied to. We have to take that fight. A fight of this magnitude, the IBF should only be too happy to be involved in such a mega fight.”

Fury, who still holds the WBA and WBO versions of the title, has been shortlisted for the BBC’s prestigious Sports Personality of the Year award — a move widely criticised after his controversial comments on a range of topics.

An online petition calling on the BBC to deselect him because of comments widely seen as homophobic has now gathered close to 100,000 signatures.

On Wednesday, Britain’s Sports Journalist’s Association (SJA) said it had withdrawn its invitation to Tyson Fury to attend next week’s British Sports Awards.

“The decision was made as a consequence of threats made by Fury against at least one sports journalist, an SJA member, who has written about the boxer’s repugnant comments on homosexuality and women,” the SJA said in a statement.

Greater Manchester Police confirmed on Wednesday that they had received a report of “hate crime” in connection with comments made by Fury on a BBC programme.

Published in Dawn, December 10th, 2015