Boxing fans not happy as Daniel Dubois is snubbed from SPOTY shortlist despite knocking out Anthony Joshua
Daniel Dubois’ exclusion from the shortlist for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2024 has left boxing fans disappointed. It was announced on Monday that the final six names eligible to win the national award do not include the boxer despite his stellar year. Dubois knocked Joshua out at Wembley StadiumGetty This time last year, Dubois had just been beaten by Oleksandr Usyk in a world title challenge and was in need of a career rebuild. At the end of December, after the 2023 SPOTY winner had been announced, he returned with a solid comeback win over Jarrell Miller, stopping the loud-mouthed American in the final round. This victory set him up for a clash with Filip Hrgovic in June. Hrgovic was previously undefeated and waiting as the long-time mandatory challenger for the Tyson Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk winner. He no doubt chose to risk his position against Dubois as he was confident he would emerge victorious. In an upset though, the Brit battled through early adversity and stopped Hrgovic in round eight. This triumph gave him the IBF ‘interim’ belt, which was upgraded to become the full IBF heavyweight world title not long later when Usyk vacated. Due to the nature of this world title status though, Dubois was not recognised as a legitimate champion by all boxing fans at first. In search of this legitimacy, he agreed to defend his belt against Anthony Joshua at Wembley Stadium in September. Despite most picking a reinvigorated Joshua to emerge victorious, Dubois stormed to a dominant KO win, flooring AJ four times and putting him down for good in round five. Jude Bellingham is among the star names who have made the six-person shortlist Few question his legitimacy as a world champion anymore and Dubois now sits firmly in the top three heavyweights in the world next to Usyk and Fury. Despite these three wins in the last 12 months though, he has not been nominated for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award. Instead, Real Madrid footballer Jude Bellingham, Olympic gold medal winning runner Keely Hodgkinson, darts sensation Luke Littler, cricketer Joe Root, para-cyclist Sarah Storey and triathlete Alex Yee are the nominees. Queensberry Promotions host Dev Sahni pointed this out on social media and had a lot of boxing fans agreeing with his point. “Where is the respect for Daniel Dubois?” he posted, quote-tweeting the SPOTY nominee announcement. “World heavyweight champion who just KO’d Anthony Joshua in front of a record breaking crowd at Wembley Stadium.” One boxing fan replied: “Boxing always gets knocked out of these little bbc cult awards.” While a second commented: “Well said, his performance was absolutely iconic.” A third wrote: “Should surely have been nominated.” And a fourth put: “Generally boxers have never stood a chance. If Fury can’t win when he beat long-term champion Wladimir Klitschko, then when [can they]?”
Daniel Dubois’ exclusion from the shortlist for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2024 has left boxing fans disappointed.
It was announced on Monday that the final six names eligible to win the national award do not include the boxer despite his stellar year.
This time last year, Dubois had just been beaten by Oleksandr Usyk in a world title challenge and was in need of a career rebuild.
At the end of December, after the 2023 SPOTY winner had been announced, he returned with a solid comeback win over Jarrell Miller, stopping the loud-mouthed American in the final round.
This victory set him up for a clash with Filip Hrgovic in June.
Hrgovic was previously undefeated and waiting as the long-time mandatory challenger for the Tyson Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk winner.
He no doubt chose to risk his position against Dubois as he was confident he would emerge victorious.
In an upset though, the Brit battled through early adversity and stopped Hrgovic in round eight.
This triumph gave him the IBF ‘interim’ belt, which was upgraded to become the full IBF heavyweight world title not long later when Usyk vacated.
Due to the nature of this world title status though, Dubois was not recognised as a legitimate champion by all boxing fans at first.
In search of this legitimacy, he agreed to defend his belt against Anthony Joshua at Wembley Stadium in September.
Despite most picking a reinvigorated Joshua to emerge victorious, Dubois stormed to a dominant KO win, flooring AJ four times and putting him down for good in round five.
Few question his legitimacy as a world champion anymore and Dubois now sits firmly in the top three heavyweights in the world next to Usyk and Fury.
Despite these three wins in the last 12 months though, he has not been nominated for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award.
Instead, Real Madrid footballer Jude Bellingham, Olympic gold medal winning runner Keely Hodgkinson, darts sensation Luke Littler, cricketer Joe Root, para-cyclist Sarah Storey and triathlete Alex Yee are the nominees.
Queensberry Promotions host Dev Sahni pointed this out on social media and had a lot of boxing fans agreeing with his point.
“Where is the respect for Daniel Dubois?” he posted, quote-tweeting the SPOTY nominee announcement.
“World heavyweight champion who just KO’d Anthony Joshua in front of a record breaking crowd at Wembley Stadium.”
One boxing fan replied: “Boxing always gets knocked out of these little bbc cult awards.”
While a second commented: “Well said, his performance was absolutely iconic.”
A third wrote: “Should surely have been nominated.”
And a fourth put: “Generally boxers have never stood a chance. If Fury can’t win when he beat long-term champion Wladimir Klitschko, then when [can they]?”
